The missile gap was the Cold War term used in the US for the perceived superiority of the number and power of the USSR's missiles in comparison with its own (a lack of military parity). The gap in the ballistic missilearsenals did not exist except in exaggerated estimates, made by the Gaither Committee in 1957 and in United States Air Force (USAF) figures. Even the contradictory CIA figures for the USSR's weaponry, which showed a clear advantage for the US, were far above the actual count. Like the bomber gap of only a few years earlier, it was soon demonstrated that the gap was entirely fictional.

John F. Kennedy is credited with inventing the term in 1958 as part of the ongoing election campaign in which a primary plank of his rhetoric was that the Eisenhower administration was weak on defense. It was later learned that Kennedy was apprised of the actual situation during the campaign, which has led scholars to question what Kennedy knew and when he knew it. There has been some speculation that he was aware of the illusory nature of the missile gap from the start and that he was using it solely as a political tool, an example of policy by press release.

Contents

The Soviet launch of Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, highlighted the technological achievements of the Soviets and sparked some worrying questions for the politicians and general public of the US, although US military and civilian agencies were well aware of Soviet satellite plans, as they were publicly announced as part of the International Geophysical Year, US President Dwight Eisenhower's announcements that the event was unsurprising found little support among a US public that was still struggling with McCarthyism.

Political opponents seized on the event, helped by Eisenhower's ineffectual response, as further proof that the US was "fiddling as Rome burned." Senator John F. Kennedy stated "the nation was losing the satellite-missile race with the Soviet Union because of… complacent miscalculations, penny-pinching, budget cutbacks, incredibly confused mismanagement, and wasteful rivalries and jealousies."[1] The Soviets capitalized on their strengthened position with false claims of Soviet missile capabilities, claiming on December 4, 1958, "Soviet ICBMs are at present in mass production." Five days later, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev boasted the successful testing of an ICBM with an impressive 8,000 mile range.[2] Coupled with the US's failed launch of the Titan ICBM that month, a sense of Soviet superiority in missile technology became prevalent.

National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 11-10-57, issued in December 1957, predicted that the Soviets would "probably have a first operational capability with up to 10 prototype ICBMs" at "some time during the period from mid-1958 to mid-1959." The numbers started to inflate.

A similar report gathered only a few months later, NIE 11-5-58, released in August 1958, concluded that the USSR had "the technical and industrial capability... to have an operational capability with 100 ICBMs" some time in 1960 and perhaps 500 ICBMs "some time in 1961, or at the latest in 1962."[1]

Beginning with the collection of photo-intelligence by U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union in 1956, the Eisenhower administration had increasingly-hard evidence that claims of any strategic weapons favoring the Soviets were false, the CIA placed the number of ICBMs to be closer to a dozen. Continued sporadic flights failed to turn up any evidence of additional missiles. Curtis LeMay argued that the large stocks of missiles were in the areas not photographed by the U-2s, and arguments broke out over the Soviet factory capability, in an effort to estimate their production rate.

In a widely-syndicated article in 1959, Joseph Alsop even went so far as to describe "classified intelligence" as placing the Soviet missile count as high as 1,500 by 1963, and the US would have only 130 at that time.[3]

It is known today that even the CIA's estimate was too high; the actual number of ICBMs, even including interim-use prototypes, was 4.[4]

In 1958, Kennedy was gearing up for his Senate re-election campaign and seized the issue, the Oxford English Dictionary lists the first use of the term "missile gap" on 14 August 1958, when he stated, "Our Nation could have afforded, and can afford now, the steps necessary to close the missile gap."[1] According to Robert McNamara, Kennedy was leaked the inflated US Air Force estimates by Senator Stuart Symington, the former Secretary of the Air Force. Unaware that the report was misleading, Kennedy used the numbers in the document and based some of his 1960 election campaign platform on the Republicans being "weak on defense."[5] The missile gap was a common theme.

Eisenhower refused to refute the claims publicly for fear that public disclosure would jeopardize the secret U-2 flights. Consequently, Eisenhower was frustrated by what he conclusively knew to be Kennedy's erroneous claims that the United States was behind the USSR in its number of missiles.[6]

In an attempt to defuse the situation, Eisenhower arranged for Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to be apprised of the information, first with a meeting by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then Strategic Air Command, and finally with the Director of the CIA, Allen Dulles, in July 1960. Still, Kennedy continued to use the same rhetoric, which modern historians have debated as likely being so useful to the campaign that he was willing to ignore the truth.[7]

In January 1961, McNamara, the new secretary of defense, and Roswell Gilpatric, a new deputy secretary, who strongly believed in the existence of a missile gap, personally examined photographs taken by Corona satellites, although the Soviet R-7 missile launchers were large and would be easy to spot in Corona photographs, they did not appear in any of them. In February, McNamara stated that there was no evidence of a large-scale Soviet effort to build ICBMs. More satellite overflights continued to find no evidence, and by September 1961, a National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the USSR had no more than 25 ICBMs and would not possess more in the near future.[8]

The missile gap was greatly in the US's favor. Satellite photographs showed the Soviets had 10 operational ICBMs, the US 57. According to Budiansky, the SS-6 and SS-7 missiles "took hours to fuel and had to have their unstable liquid propellant drained every thirty days to prevent them from blowing up on the launch pad; the new U.S. Minuteman missile, entering final testing, was powered by solid propellant and could be launched in minutes."[9]

During a transition briefing, Jerome Wiesner, "a member of Eisenhower's permanent Science Advisory Committe,... explained that the missile gap was a fiction. The new president greeted the news with a single expletive "delivered more in anger than in relief"[10]

Kennedy was later embarrassed by the whole issue; the 19 April 1962 issue of The Listener noted, "The passages on the 'missile gap' are a little dated, since Mr Kennedy has now told us that it scarcely ever existed."[11]

During McNamara's first press conference, three weeks into his new role as Secretary of Defense, he was asked about the missile gap. According to Budiansky, McNamara replied, "Oh, I've learned there isn't any, or if there is, it's in our favor." The room promptly emptied as the Pentagon press corps rushed to break the news.[9]

Now the president, Johnson told a gathering in 1967:

"I wouldn't want to be quoted on this.... We've spent $35 or $40 billion on the space program. And if nothing else had come out of it except the knowledge that we gained from space photography, it would be worth ten times what the whole program has cost, because tonight we know how many missiles the enemy has and, it turned out, our guesses were way off. We were doing things we didn't need to do. We were building things we didn't need to build. We were harboring fears we didn't need to harbor."

Warnings and calls to address imbalances between the fighting capabilities of two forces were not new, as a "bomber gap" had exercised political concerns only a few years earlier. What was different about the missile gap was the fear that a distant country could strike without warning from far away with little damage to themselves. Concerns about missile gaps and similar fears, such as nuclear proliferation, continue.

Promotion of the missile gap had several unintended consequences, the R-7 requires as much as 20 hours to be readied for launch so they could be easily attacked by bombers before they could strike. That demanded them be based in secret locations to prevent a pre-emptive strike on them, as Corona could find the sites no matter where they were located, the Soviets decided not to build large numbers of R-7s and preferred more-advanced missiles that could be launched more quickly.[8]

Later evidence has emerged that one consequence of Kennedy pushing the false idea that America was behind the Soviets in a missile gap was that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and senior Soviet military figures began to believe that Kennedy was a dangerous extremist, who worked with the American military to plant the idea of a Soviet first-strike capability to justify a pre-emptive American attack.[citation needed] That belief about Kennedy as a militarist was reinforced in Soviet minds by the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis after the Soviets placed nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962.

A second claim of a missile gap appeared in 1974. Albert Wohlstetter, a professor at the University of Chicago, accused the CIA of systematically underestimating Soviet missile deployment in his 1974 foreign policy article, "Is There a Strategic Arms Race?" Wohlstetter concluded that the US was allowing the USSR to achieve military superiority by not closing a perceived missile gap. Many conservatives then began a concerted attack on the CIA's annual assessment of the Soviet threat.[12]

That led to an exercise in competitive analysis, with a group called Team B being created with the production of a highly controversial report.

According to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the USA had a six-to-one advantage in the number of nuclear warheads over the USSR by 1976.[13]

A 1979 briefing note on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of the missile gap concluded that the NIE's record on estimating the Soviet missile force in the 1970s was mixed, the NIE estimates for initial operational capability (IOC) date for MIRVedICBMs and SLBMs were generally accurate, as were the NIE predictions on the development of Soviet strategic air defenses. However, the NIE predictions also overestimated the scope of infrastructure upgrades in the Soviet system and underestimated the speed of Soviet improvement in accuracy and proliferation of re-entry vehicles.

NIE results were regarded as improving but still vague and showed broad fluctuations and had little long-term validity.[14]

The whole idea of a missile gap was parodied in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in which a doomsday device is built by the Soviets because they had read in The New York Times that the US was working along similar lines and wanted to avoid a "Doomsday Gap." As the weapon is set up to go off automatically if the USSR is attacked, which occurs as the movie progresses, the president is informed that all life on the surface will be killed off for a period of years. The only hope for survival is to select important people and place them deep underground in mine shafts until the radiation clears, the generals almost immediately begin to worry about a "mine shaft gap" between the US and Soviets. In reference to the alleged "missile gap" itself, General Turgidson mentions off-hand at one point that the United States actually has a five-to-one rate of missile superiority against the USSR, the Soviet ambassador himself also explains that one of the major reasons that the Soviets began work on the doomsday machine was that they realized that they simply could never match the rate of American military production (let alone, outproduce American missile construction). The doomsday machine cost only a small fraction of what the Soviets normally spent on defense in a single year.

Missile Gap
–
Missile Gap is a 2006 English language science fiction novella, originally published in the anthology One Million A. D. by British author Charles Stross. It won the Locus Award for best novella of 2006, the novella was republished in Strosss short-story collection Wireless in 2009. On 2 October 1962, the universe underwent a change – instantly, mea

1.
Cover of first edition (hardcover)

Dwight D. Eisenhower
–
Dwight David Ike Eisenhower was an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a general in the United States Army during World War II. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43, in 1951, he became the first S

4.
Eisenhower (far right) with three unidentified people in 1919, four years after graduating from West Point.

Military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower
–
The military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower encompassed over forty years of active service. Entering the United States Military Academy in June 1911, Eisenhower had a spectacular 1912 football touchdown praised by the New York Herald, the week after sharing a tackle of Jim Thorpe, Eisenhowers sports career ended with a severe knee injury. Eisenhowe

Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
–
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was in command of SHAEF throughout its existence, the position itself shares a common lineage with Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Atlantic, but t

Normandy landings
–
The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed Ge

Operation Overlord
–
The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France, on 6 June 1944. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful D-Day, Allied land forces came from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Fre

3.
U.S. soldiers march through Weymouth, Dorset en route to board landing ships for the invasion of France.

4.
D-day assault routes into Normandy.

German Instrument of Surrender
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The German Instrument of Surrender ended World War II in Europe. An earlier version of the text had been signed in a ceremony in Reims in the hours of 7 May 1945. In the West,8 May is known as Victory in Europe Day, whereas in post-Soviet states the Victory Day is celebrated on 9 May, there were three language versions of the surrender document. Th

Victory in Europe Day
–
It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory, on 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germanys surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz, the administration headed by Dö

Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
–
The presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower began on January 20,1953 at noon Eastern Standard Time, when he was inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States, and ended on January 20,1961. Eisenhower, a Republican, took office as president following a win over Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. This victory upended the

3.
Eisenhower, First Lady Soong May-ling, and Chiang in Taiwan in 1960.

4.
Eisenhower in the Oval Office, February 29, 1956.

Draft Eisenhower movement
–
The Draft Eisenhower movement was the first successful political draft of the 20th century to take a private citizen to the Oval Office. It was a widespread American grassroots political movement that eventually persuaded Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for President, the movement culminated in the 1952 presidential election in which Eisenhower won the

1.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945 military photo

Republican Party presidential primaries, 1952
–
Former U. S. Army General Dwight D. The moderate Eastern Republicans were led by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the moderates were also concerned with ending the GOPs losing streak in presidential elections, they felt that the personally popular Eisenhower had the best chance of beating the Democrats. The conservative Republicans led by Senator

1.
Nominee

United States presidential election, 1952
–
The United States presidential election of 1952 was that nations 42nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4,1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was the winner, ending a string of Democratic wins that stretched back to 1932. He carried the Republican Party to narrow control of the House, during this time, Cold War tension

1.
All 531 electoral votes of the Electoral College 266 electoral votes needed to win

First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower
–
The first inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th President of the United States was held on January 20,1953, at the east portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D. C. The inauguration marked the commencement of the first four-year term of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President, chief Justice Fred M. Vinson administered the presiden

Korean War
–
The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an ag

2.
Three Koreans shot for pulling up rails as a protest against seizure of land without payment by the Japanese

3.
Soviet troops in Korea, October 1945

4.
U.S. troops in Korea, September 1945

Atoms for Peace
–
Atoms for Peace was the title of a speech delivered by U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8,1953. I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new – one which I and that new language is the language of atomic warfare. The United States then launched an Atoms for Peace prog

1.
The Atoms for Peace program distributed nuclear technology, materials, and know-how to many countries with less advanced research.

New Look (policy)
–
The New Look was the name given to the national security policy of the United States during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It reflected Eisenhowers concern for balancing the Cold War military commitments of the United States with the financial resources. The policy emphasized reliance on nuclear weapons to deter potential thr

1.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, right, shown here with President Eisenhower in 1956, became identified with the doctrine of "massive retaliation."

2.
President Eisenhower and members of his Cabinet inspect the YB-52 prototype of the B-52.

3.
The B-47 long-range bomber was the mainstay of U.S. deterrence during most of the New Look.

4.
A B-52 long-range bomber. The first models were deployed just as the New Look took shape.

Domino theory
–
The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world. Though he never used the term domino theory, U. S. President Dwight D. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, so you could have a beginning of a disintegration that woul

Interstate Highway System
–
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways is a network of controlled-access highways that forms a part of the National Highway System of the United States. The system is named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed its formation, construction was authorized by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, and th

1.
A rural stretch of I-5, with two lanes in each direction separated by a large grassy median and with cross-traffic limited to overpasses and underpasses

United States presidential election, 1956
–
The United States presidential election of 1956 was the 43rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6,1956. The popular incumbent President, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, successfully ran for re-election, the election was a re-match of 1952, as Eisenhowers opponent in 1956 was Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, wh

Sputnik crisis
–
The crisis was a key event in the early Cold War that triggered the creation of NASA and Space Race between the two superpowers. The satellite was launched on October 4,1957 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the term was coined by then US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The United States was the dominant world power in the early 1950s, lockheed U-2 spy

1.
Soviet stamp depicting Sputnik's orbit around Earth

National Defense Education Act
–
The National Defense Education Act was signed into law on September 2,1958, providing funding to United States education institutions at all levels. It followed a national sense that U. S. scientists were falling behind scientists in the Soviet Union. The act authorized funding for four years, increasing funding per year, for example, in total, ove

1.
National Defense Education Act

NASA
–
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration effor

1.
1963 photo showing Dr. William H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right). NASA Administrator James Webb in background. They are discussing the Mariner program, with a model presented.

DARPA
–
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the U. S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. DARPA was created in February 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and its purpose was to formulate and execute research and develo

1.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

2.
DARPA's former headquarters in the Virginia Square neighborhood of Arlington. This agency recently moved to 675 North Randolph Street, near the Ballston Common Mall.

Little Rock Nine
–
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhowe

1960 U-2 incident
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Powers parachuted safely and was captured. The U-2 flew at altitudes that could not be reached by Soviet fighter jets of the era, a facility established in Badaber,10 miles from Peshawar, was a cover for a major communications intercept operation run by the United States National Security Agency. Badaber was an excellent location because of its pro

4.
U-2 with fictitious NASA markings and serial number at the NASA Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, on 6 May 1960 (NASA photo).

General of the Army (United States)
–
General of the Army is a five-star general officer and the second highest possible rank in the United States Army. A General of the Army ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to a fleet admiral, there is no established equivalent five-star rank in the other federal uniformed services. Often called a general, the rank of General of the

Cold War
–
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there w

1.
Photograph of the Berlin Wall taken from the West side. The Wall was built in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing and to stop an economically disastrous drain of workers. It was a symbol of the Cold War and its fall in 1989 marked the approaching end of the war.

United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

USSR
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started t

Ballistic missile
–
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a ballistic trajectory with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. A ballistic missile is only guided during relatively brief periods of flight and this contrasts to a cruise missile, which is aerodynamically guided in powered flight. Long range intercontinental ball

Arsenal
–
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury or armory are mostly regarded as synonyms, although differences in usage exist. A sub-armory is a place of storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition. From Italian, ars

United States Air Force
–
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. militar

CIA
–
As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Speci

4.
The 111 stars on the CIA Memorial Wall in the original CIA headquarters, each representing a CIA officer killed in action.

John F. Kennedy
–
Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, and his New Frontier domestic program was largely enacted as a memorial to him after his death. Kennedy also established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, Kennedys time in office was marked by high tensions with Communist states. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vi

1.
John F. Kennedy

2.
The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1931 with Jack at top left in white shirt. Ted was born the following year.

Eisenhower administration
–
The presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower began on January 20,1953 at noon Eastern Standard Time, when he was inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States, and ended on January 20,1961. Eisenhower, a Republican, took office as president following a win over Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. This victory upended the

3.
Eisenhower, First Lady Soong May-ling, and Chiang in Taiwan in 1960.

4.
Eisenhower in the Oval Office, February 29, 1956.

Sputnik 1
–
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957 and it was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses were detectable and this surprise success preci

1.
A replica of Sputnik 1

2.
This metal arming key is the last remaining piece of the first Sputnik satellite. It prevented contact between the batteries and the transmitter prior to launch. Currently on display at the SmithsonianNational Air and Space Museum.

International Geophysical Year
–
The International Geophysical Year was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1,1957, to December 31,1958. It marked the end of a period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Joseph Stalins death in 1953 opened the way for this new era of collaboration, sixty-seven c

1.
Official emblem of IGY

2.
A commemorative stamp issued by Japan in 1957 to mark the IGY. The illustration depicts the Japanese Research Ship Sōya and a Penguin.

Dwight Eisenhower
–
Dwight David Ike Eisenhower was an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a general in the United States Army during World War II. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43, in 1951, he became the first S

4.
Eisenhower (far right) with three unidentified people in 1919, four years after graduating from West Point.

McCarthyism
–
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It originated with President Trumans Executive Order 9835 of March 21,1947, McCarthyism soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated a

Nikita Khrushchev
–
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, Khrushchevs party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier. Khrushchev w

Lockheed U-2
–
It provides day and night, high-altitude, all-weather intelligence gathering. The U-2 has also used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration. Early versions of the U-2 were involved in several events through the Cold War, being flown over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, in 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2A over the Soviet

Curtis LeMay
–
Curtis Emerson LeMay was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party candidate George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election. Curtis LeMay is credited with designing and implementing an effective, but also controversial, during the war, he was known for planning and executing a ma

1.
Curtis LeMay

2.
LeMay became known for his massive incendiary attacks against Japanese cities during the war using hundreds of planes flying at low altitudes.

3.
Colonel Curtis LeMay officially congratulates a bomber crew of the 306th Bomb Group in front of their B-17 Flying Fortress at Chelveston Airfield, England, 2 June 1943.

4.
A "LeMay Bombing Leaflet" from the war, which warned Japanese civilians that "Unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America's humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives."

Joseph Alsop
–
Joseph Wright Alsop V was an American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist from the 1930s through the 1970s. His influential journalism and status as a top insider in Washington was prominent from 1945 to the late 1960s, Alsop was born on October 10,1910, in Avon, Connecticut, to Joseph Wright Alsop IV and Corinne Douglas Robinson. Through

Oxford English Dictionary
–
The Oxford English Dictionary is a descriptive dictionary of the English language, published by the Oxford University Press. The second edition came to 21,728 pages in 20 volumes, in 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary was first used unofficially on the covers of the series, and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound vol

1.
Seven of the twenty volumes of the printed version of the second edition of the OED

4.
The 78 Banbury Road, Oxford, house, erstwhile residence of James Murray, Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary

Robert McNamara
–
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, during which time he played a role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Following that, he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 to 198

Stuart Symington
–
William Stuart Symington, Jr. was an American businessman and politician from Missouri. He served as the first Secretary of the Air Force from 1947 to 1950 and was a Democratic United States Senator from Missouri from 1953 to 1976, Symington was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of Emily Haxall and William Stuart Symington, Sr. His mother, a

1.
Stuart Symington

2.
Symington while in the Senate.

Secretary of the Air Force
–
The Secretary of the Air Force is the head of the Department of the Air Force, a component organization within the Department of Defense of the United States. The Secretary of the Air Force is appointed from civilian life by the President, by and with the advice, the salary of SECAF IS $179,700, Level II. On December 13,2013, Deborah Lee James was

United States presidential election, 1960
–
The United States presidential election of 1960 was the 44th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8,1960. The Republican Party nominated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, while the Democratic Party nominated John F. Kennedy, the incumbent President, Republican Dwight D. This was the first presidential election in which

1.
All 537 electoral votes of the Electoral College 269 electoral votes needed to win

2.
Kissinger being sworn in as Secretary of State by Chief Justice Warren Burger, September 22, 1973. Kissinger's mother, Paula, holds the Bible upon which he was sworn in while President Nixon looks on.

1.
A futuristic setting is a common but not a necessary hallmark of science fiction. A common thread in science fiction is exploring the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations on people's lives.

2.
18 October 1944; the crowd celebrates the Liberation and the coming of Papandreou Government.

3.
Unarmed protesters of EAM lying dead or wounded on 3 December 1944 in front of the Greek Parliament, while others are running for their lives; moments after the first shootings that left at least 28 dead and signalled the beginning of the "Dekemvriana" events.

2.
Allied army positions in central Europe on 10 May 1945. The Soviet numerical superiority in relation to the Western Allies was roughly 4:1 in men and 2:1 in tanks at the end of hostilities in Europe.

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Missile Gap
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Missile Gap is a 2006 English language science fiction novella, originally published in the anthology One Million A. D. by British author Charles Stross. It won the Locus Award for best novella of 2006, the novella was republished in Strosss short-story collection Wireless in 2009. On 2 October 1962, the universe underwent a change – instantly, measurements on Cepheid variable stars indicate that the Alderson disk is located in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, and that the epoch is roughly 800,000 years later than the calendar date. In the sky, the stars of the Milky Way are reddened and metal-depleted, three theories for the change are suggested within the novella, the atoms making up the surface and people of earth have somehow peeled off the Earth and shipped to a new location. Marvin Minsky suggests that a snapshot of the world was taken, hans Moravec suggests that a snapshot of the world was taken and the snapshot has been used as the basis for a simulated reality. The first hypothesis would indicate that the characters of the book are the humans of the 20th century Earth. The latter two hypotheses would indicate that the characters of the book are duplicates of humans lived and died thousands of years previously. The creatures that moved or copied humanity are unknown, as is the technology they used, because of the projection of a spherical surface onto a flat surface, some changes occur, North America is now much farther from Asia, as there is no polar route. Furthermore, launching a satellite into orbit becomes impossible. The deterrent role is taken over by long-range nuclear-powered cruise missiles, cold war tensions between the two super states provide the in-between plot direction. There are several sub-plots – the exploration of the new world by both superpowers forms much of the major plot, yuri Gagarin captains a huge, nuclear-powered Ekranoplan on behalf of the Soviets, whilst the Americans launch cruise liners filled with colonists for distant islands. On one such island, Madelaine Holbright begins an affair with John Martin, during his travels, Gagarin turns up further examples of Earths far away from the currently inhabited areas, with cities that have clearly been destroyed in nuclear war in the distant past. G. Carl Hays in his review for Booklist called the novel a bizarre, online text from the publishers website

Missile Gap
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Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Missile Gap

2.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Dwight David Ike Eisenhower was an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a general in the United States Army during World War II. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43, in 1951, he became the first Supreme Commander of NATO. Eisenhower was of mostly Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry and was raised in a family in Kansas by parents with a strong religious background. He graduated from West Point in 1915 and later married Mamie Doud, after World War II, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and then accepted the post of President at Columbia University. Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, campaigning against communism, Korea and he won in a landslide, defeating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and temporarily upending the New Deal Coalition. Eisenhower was the first U. S. president to be constitutionally term-limited under the 22nd Amendment, Eisenhowers main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. He ordered coups in Iran and Guatemala, Eisenhower gave major aid to help the French in the First Indochina War, and after the French were defeated he gave strong financial support to the new state of South Vietnam. Congress agreed to his request in 1955 for the Formosa Resolution, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Eisenhower authorized the establishment of NASA, which led to the space race. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower condemned the Israeli, British and French invasion of Egypt and he also condemned the Soviet invasion during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action. Eisenhower sent 15,000 U. S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution during the 1958 Lebanon crisis. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident. On the domestic front, he covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking executive privilege and he otherwise left most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. Eisenhower was a conservative who continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security. Eisenhowers two terms saw considerable economic prosperity except for a decline in 1958. Voted Gallups most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U. S. Presidents. The Eisenhauer family migrated from Karlsbrunn in the Saarland, to North America, first settling in York, Pennsylvania, in 1741, accounts vary as to how and when the German name Eisenhauer was anglicized to Eisenhower. Eisenhowers Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors, who were farmers, included Hans Nikolaus Eisenhauer of Karlsbrunn

Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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The Eisenhower family home, Abilene, Kansas.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Eisenhower (2nd from left) and Omar Bradley (2nd from right) were members of the 1912 West Point football team.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Eisenhower (far right) with three unidentified people in 1919, four years after graduating from West Point.

3.
Military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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The military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower encompassed over forty years of active service. Entering the United States Military Academy in June 1911, Eisenhower had a spectacular 1912 football touchdown praised by the New York Herald, the week after sharing a tackle of Jim Thorpe, Eisenhowers sports career ended with a severe knee injury. Eisenhower graduated in 1915 ranked 61st in a class of 164, the risk, however, that the football injury would cause the government to later have to give Eisenhower a medical discharge and pension, almost caused the army to not commission him. This was acceptable to Eisenhower, who was curious about gaucho life, the army offered to assign him to the coast artillery, but Eisenhower viewed it as offering a minimum of excitement and preferred to become a civilian. West Points chief medical officer interceded with the War Department and obtained a commission for him, Eisenhower requested duty in the Philippines, but was assigned to the 19th Infantry at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Shortly after the entry of the United States into the First World War, Major Eisenhowers unit was honored by the Tank Corps Welfare League at New York Citys Century Theatre on September 15,1918. Eisenhower was promoted to lieutenant colonel in October and was ordered the same month to embark on November 18 with Camp Colt tankers for combat service in France, with the deployment overtaken by the November 11 armistice, Eisenhower instead was transferred to Camp Dix until December 22. He served at Camp Benning from December 24,1918 until March 15,1919 and his interest in tank warfare was strengthened by many conversations with George S. Patton and other senior tank leaders, however their ideas on tank warfare were strongly discouraged by superiors. The peacetime army promoted strictly on seniority, and Eisenhower would serve as a major for 16 years, in 1921 Army Inspector General Eli Helmick found that Eisenhower had improperly received $251 in housing allowance. Eisenhower received a written reprimand that became part of his military record, while working under Conner for three years the general tutored him on military history and theory, and Eisenhower later cited Conners enormous influence on his military thinking. Ranked in the top 10% of active-duty majors, in 1925–26 he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Eisenhower disliked serving with the Buffalo Soldiers regiment, many white officers viewed serving in an all-black unit as punishment for poor performance. Conner helped Eisenhower to be reassigned to the American Battle Monuments Commission, directed by General John J. Pershing. Despite not having participated in the battles within six months he produced A Guide to the American Battle Fields in Europe, an excellent overview of the United States participation in World War I. The research made Eisenhower perhaps the armys best expert on Pershings strategies during the war other than Conner and Pershing himself, Conner again helped him obtain his next assignment, as one of the youngest-ever students at the War College. Pershing wrote a letter praising Eisenhower, and from then on the army saw him as one of its leading officers. Next came another assignment to Pershings commission, this time in Paris and he was assigned to the Army War College, and then served as executive officer to General George V. Moseley, Assistant Secretary of War, from 1929 to 1933. Eisenhower was promoted to the permanent rank of lieutenant colonel in 1936 and he also learned to fly, although he was never rated as a military pilot. He made a flight over the Philippines in 1937

Military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1947.
Military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Memorial To Eisenhower at West Point.
Military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Eisenhower (seated, middle) with other US Army officers, 1945. From left to right, the front row includes Simpson, Patton, Spaatz, Eisenhower, Bradley, Hodges, and Gerow.
Military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Eisenhower speaks with U.S. paratroopers of the 502d Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division on the evening of June 5, 1944.

4.
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
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Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was in command of SHAEF throughout its existence, the position itself shares a common lineage with Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Atlantic, but they are different titles. Southwick House was used as a headquarters near Portsmouth. Its staff took the plan for Operation Overlord created by Lieutenant General Sir Frederick E. Morgan, COSSAC. Morgan, who had appointed chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander in mid-March 1943 began planning for the invasion of Europe before Eisenhowers appointment. And moulded it into the version, which was executed on 6 June 1944. That process was shaped by Eisenhower and the forces commander for the initial part of the invasion. SHAEF remained in the United Kingdom until sufficient forces were ashore to justify its transfer to France, at that point, Montgomery ceased to command all land forces but continued as Commander in Chief of the British 21st Army Group on the eastern wing of the Normandy bridgehead. The American 12th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley was created as the wing of the bridgehead. During the invasion of southern France, the 6 AG was under the command of the Allied Forces Headquarters of the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, by December 1944, SHAEF had established itself in the Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles, France. In February 1945, it moved to Rheims and on 26 April 1945, SHAEF commanded the largest number of formations ever committed to one operation on the Western Front, with American, French army of liberation, British and Canadian Army forces. Allied strategic bomber forces in the UK also came under its command during Operation Neptune, Bradley Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers Air Forces Commander, Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory Naval Forces Commander, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. After the surrender of Germany, SHAEF was dissolved on 14 July 1945 and, with respect to the US forces, was replaced by US Forces, USFET was reorganized as EUCOM on 15 March 1947. Winters, Major Dick, with Cole C, beyond Band of Brothers, The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters. Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, Washington, D. C.1954

5.
Normandy landings
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The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces, the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06,30, the target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their positions, particularly at Utah. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs, at Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks. The Allies failed to any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. Between 27 May and 4 June 1940, over 338,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force, after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a. full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a front in Europe in 1942. Instead of a return to France, the Western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won, the Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently invaded Italy in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected

6.
Operation Overlord
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The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France, on 6 June 1944. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful D-Day, Allied land forces came from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Free French forces. The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, the invasion began and during the evening the remaining elements of the airborne divisions landed. Land forces used on D-Day sailed from bases along the south coast of England, Allied forces rehearsed their D-Day roles for months before the invasion. On 28 April 1944, in south Devon on the English coast,749 U. S. soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allied forces conducted an operation, Operation Fortitude, aimed at misleading the Germans with respect to the date. There were several leaks prior to or on D-Day, through the Cicero affair, the Germans obtained documents containing references to Overlord, but these documents lacked all detail. Double Cross agents, such as the Spaniard Juan Pujol, played an important role in convincing the German High Command that Normandy was at best a diversionary attack. After being told, Eisenhower reduced Miller to lieutenant colonel and sent him back to the U. S. where he retired, another such leak was General Charles de Gaulles radio message after D-Day. He, unlike all the leaders, stated that this invasion was the real invasion. This had the potential to ruin the Allied deceptions Fortitude North, in contrast, Gen. Eisenhower referred to the landings as the initial invasion. A full moon occurred on 6 June, Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower had tentatively selected 5 June as the date for the assault. The weather was fine during most of May, but deteriorated in early June, the Allied troop convoys already at sea were forced to take shelter in bays and inlets on the south coast of Britain for the night. It seemed possible that everything would have to be cancelled and the returned to their embarkation camps. The next full moon period would be nearly a month away, at a vital meeting on 5 June, Eisenhowers chief meteorologist forecast a brief improvement for 6 June. Commander of all forces for the invasion General Bernard Montgomery. Commander of the Allied Air Forces Air Chief Marshal Leigh Mallory was doubtful, on the strength of Staggs forecast, Eisenhower ordered the invasion to proceed. As a result, prevailing overcast skies limited Allied air support, some troops stood down and many senior officers were away for the weekend

7.
German Instrument of Surrender
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The German Instrument of Surrender ended World War II in Europe. An earlier version of the text had been signed in a ceremony in Reims in the hours of 7 May 1945. In the West,8 May is known as Victory in Europe Day, whereas in post-Soviet states the Victory Day is celebrated on 9 May, there were three language versions of the surrender document. The Russian and English versions were the only authoritative ones, by 3 January 1944, the Working Security Committee in the EAC proposed that the capitulation of Germany should be recorded in a single document of unconditional surrender. The committee further suggested that the instrument of surrender be signed by representatives of the German High Command, not everyone agreed with the Working Security Committees predictions regarding the wars ending. Ambassador William Strang, British representative at the EAC, claimed as follows, the surrender terms for Germany were first discussed at the first EAC meeting on 14 January 1944. A definitive text was agreed on 28 July 1944, and was adopted by the three Allied Powers. The agreed text was in three parts, the instrument of surrender itself followed in fourteen articles. Articles 13 and 14 specified the date of surrender and the languages of the definitive texts, while this was unresolved, there were in effect two versions of the EAC text, with and without the dismemberment clause. These guidelines formed the basis for the series of capitulations of German forces to the Western Allies in April. But that did mean that the text as signed at Reims had not been agreed in advance with the Soviet High Command. But with the fall of Berlin two days later, and American and Soviet forces having linked up at Torgau on the Elbe, the area of Germany still under German military control had been split in two. German military commanders in Italy had been conducting secret negotiations for a partial surrender, field Marshal Albert Kesselring, with overall military command for OKW-South, initially denounced the capitulation, but once Hitlers death had been confirmed, acceded to it. On 5 May 1945, all German forces in Bavaria and Southwest Germany signed an act of surrender to the Americans at Haar, outside Munich, in addition, Dönitz hoped to continue to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from the Hela peninsula and the surrounding Baltic coastal areas. From 5 May, Army Group Centre was also engaged in the suppression of the Prague uprising. The surrenders in the west had succeeded in ceasing hostilities between the Western allies and German forces on almost all fronts, German forces in the east were ordered instead to fight their way westwards. Dönitzs representative, Admiral Friedeburg, informed him on 6 May that Eisenhower was now insisting on immediate, simultaneous, the signing took place in a red brick schoolhouse, the Collège Moderne et Technique de Reims, that served as the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. It was to take effect at 23,01 CET on 8 May, the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces was signed by Jodl, on behalf of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht

8.
Victory in Europe Day
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It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory, on 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germanys surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz, the administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin. The former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries have historically celebrated the end of World War II on 9 May, however, the Baltic countries now commemorate VE day on 8 May. In Ukraine from 2015,8 May was designated as a day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, upon the defeat of Germany, celebrations erupted throughout the world. From Moscow to Los Angeles, people celebrated, in the United Kingdom, more than one million people celebrated in the streets to mark the end of the European part of the war. Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret were allowed to wander incognito among the crowds, in the United States, the victory happened on President Harry Trumans 61st birthday. He dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, flags remained at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period. Truman said of dedicating the victory to Roosevelts memory and keeping the flags at half-staff that his wish was that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day. Later that day, Truman said that the victory made it his most enjoyable birthday, massive celebrations also took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and especially in New Yorks Times Square. As the Soviet representative in Reims had no authority to sign the German instrument of surrender, the surrender ceremony was repeated in Berlin on 8 May, where the instrument of surrender was signed by supreme German military commander Wilhelm Keitel, by Georgy Zhukov and Allied representatives. East Germany as Tag der Befreiung, a holiday from 1950 to 1966. Between 1975 and 1990, as Tag des Sieges, France as Victoire 1945 Slovakia as Deň víťazstva nad fašizmom Czech Republic as Den vítězství or Den osvobození Poland as Narodowy Dzień Zwycięstwa – National Victory Day. Norway as Frigjøringsdagen Ukraine День памяті та примирення Ukraine День перемоги над нацизмом у Другій світовій війні — from 2015

9.
Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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The presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower began on January 20,1953 at noon Eastern Standard Time, when he was inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States, and ended on January 20,1961. Eisenhower, a Republican, took office as president following a win over Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. This victory upended the New Deal Coalition that had kept the presidency in the hands of the Democratic Party for 20 years, four years later, in the 1956 presidential election, he defeated Stevenson in a landslide again, winning a second term in office. Eisenhower was the first U. S. president to be limited to two terms in office under the 22nd Amendment. He was succeeded in office by Democrat John F. Kennedy, the nation experienced considerable economic prosperity during the Eisenhower Presidency, except for a sharp recession in 1958–59. It was also, following the conclusion of the Korean War in the summer of 1953, at peace, the Presidents main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. A self-described progressive conservative, he continued New Deal programs and expanded Social Security and he also spurred development of the Interstate Highway System, and after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, authorized the establishment of NASA. Voted Gallups most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U. S. Presidents. Eisenhower had been a favorite of the New Dealers during the war, especially Franklin D. Roosevelt, rejecting Democratic efforts to nominate him in 1948 and 1952, Eisenhower instead chose to run for the Republican Party nomination in 1952. His goal was to prevent Robert A. Tafts non-interventionism—such as opposition to NATO—from becoming public policy, on domestic issues they were in general agreement, and a compromise was reached after Eisenhower won the nomination that Taft would be dominant in domestic affairs and stay out of foreign affairs. Ike crusaded against Korea—Communism—Corruption, identifying these as failures of the Truman administration and he electrified the country just before the election by promising to personally go to Korea and end that stalemated conflict. Eisenhowers choice for vice-president on his ticket was Richard Nixon and he saw Nixons strong vocal opposition against communism as an asset to his campaign. When Nixons Checkers scandal was revealed to the public, Eisenhower still kept Nixon on the ticket, in the 1952 U. S. presidential election, Eisenhower easily defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II and became the first career soldier since Ulysses S. Grant to be elected president. Although many presidents have served in the military, Eisenhower was the general to serve as president in the 20th century. The United States presidential election of 1956 was held on November 6,1956, Eisenhower, the popular incumbent, successfully ran for re-election. The election was a re-match of 1952, as his opponent in 1956 was Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, compared to the 1952 election, Eisenhower gained Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia from Stevenson, while losing Missouri. This was the last presidential election before the admissions of Alaska and Hawaii, Eisenhower created the positions of White House Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor. He expanded the role of the National Security Council and was the first president to conduct televised press conferences, reporters of that time have said that Eisenhower was the first president to employ the non-answer during these events

Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Dwight David Eisenhower
Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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With Republic of China PresidentChiang Kai-shek, Eisenhower waved to Taiwanese people during his visit to Taipei, Taiwan in June 1960.
Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Eisenhower, First Lady Soong May-ling, and Chiang in Taiwan in 1960.
Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Eisenhower in the Oval Office, February 29, 1956.

10.
Draft Eisenhower movement
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The Draft Eisenhower movement was the first successful political draft of the 20th century to take a private citizen to the Oval Office. It was a widespread American grassroots political movement that eventually persuaded Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for President, the movement culminated in the 1952 presidential election in which Eisenhower won the Republican nomination and defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson to become the 34th President of the United States. Dwight Eisenhower enrolled at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, in June 1911 and he steadily rose through the ranks of the U. S. military from 1915 to 1952. At the end of the War in Europe on May 8,1945, Eisenhower retired from active service on May 31,1952. During this period Eisenhower served as president of Columbia University from 1948 until 1953, the time from 1951 to 1952 has been called the American Winter of Discontent. Americans were frustrated by the stalemated Korean War, with no end in sight. Eisenhower rejected all requests to enter politics and he considered making a statement similar to Shermans, but did not reject running for the presidency as definitively as William T.18. i forbidding partisan political activity by serving officers. Democrats sought a candidate who could help them retain the White House after Truman, hoping that Eisenhower would run on behalf of the Democratic Party, Truman wrote to Eisenhower in December 1951, saying, I wish you would let me know what you intend to do. Eisenhower responded, I do not feel that I have any duty to seek a political nomination, Republican New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. of Massachusetts meanwhile worked to persuade him to run. Lodge began encouraging Eisenhower to run more than two years before the 1952 Republican National Convention, and Dewey on 15 October 1950 had announced his support for the general, Republican admirers coined the phrase I like Ike in the spring of 1951 as a symbol of their hopes. The I Like Ike slogan was created when Peter G. Thus, Eisenhower had told Kansas newspaper editor Roy A. Roberts in 1947 that he was a good Kansas Republican like yourself. Although Roberts disclosed their conversation in 1951, Americans remained uncertain of Eisenhowers politics, while Taft had voted against NATO, Eisenhower believed that the United States and its allies needed to oppose Communism through NATO and other collective security efforts. He hoped to settle the issue before taking the NATO post in Paris, Eisenhower offered to make a Shermanesque statement rejecting any possibility of running for the presidency if Taft agreed to support collective security with Europe. During 1951 more Republican politicians announced their support for Eisenhower, while Democrats continued to him that he could win the presidency as a Democrat. Taft announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination on 16 October, on 17 November Lodge became the campaign manager for the Draft Eisenhower movement, still without any authorization from its candidate. On January 6,1952, Lodge entered Eisenhowers name into the New Hampshire primary ballot without Eisenhowers permission, soon 24 newspapers including The New York Times endorsed Eisenhower, and Senator Paul Douglas even suggested that both parties nominate Eisenhower with differing vice-presidential running mates. For several weeks Eisenhower was a non-participant, however, and would not speak out on his views or declare himself a candidate. Through January and February Eisenhower wrote to friends and family members saying that he was flattered by the movement, on 8 February the movement demonstrated its size

Draft Eisenhower movement
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Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945 military photo

11.
Republican Party presidential primaries, 1952
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Former U. S. Army General Dwight D. The moderate Eastern Republicans were led by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the moderates were also concerned with ending the GOPs losing streak in presidential elections, they felt that the personally popular Eisenhower had the best chance of beating the Democrats. The conservative Republicans led by Senator Taft were based in the Midwest, Senator Taft had been a candidate for the GOP nomination in 1940 and 1948, but had been defeated both times by moderate Republicans from New York. Taft, who was 62 when the campaign began, freely admitted that 1952 was his last chance to win the nomination, and this led his supporters to work hard for him. Tafts weakness, which he was never able to overcome, was the fear of many party bosses that he was too conservative, notable was the absence of Dewey. He strongly supported Eisenhower and played an important role in persuading him to run, Dewey used his powerful political machine to win Ike the support of delegates in New York and elsewhere. Eisenhower scored a victory in the New Hampshire primary when his supporters wrote his name onto the ballot. Eisenhowers managers, led by Governor Dewey and Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. accused Taft of stealing delegate votes in Southern states such as Texas and Georgia. They claimed that Tafts leaders in these states had illegally refused to give delegate spots to Eisenhower supporters, Lodge and Dewey proposed to evict the pro-Taft delegates in these states and replace them with pro-Eisenhower delegates, they called this proposal Fair Play. In the end Eisenhower took the nomination on the first ballot, to heal the wounds caused by the battle he went to Tafts hotel suite and met with him. The Convention then chose young Senator Richard Nixon of California as Eisenhowers running mate, it was felt that Nixons credentials as a slashing campaigner, the balloting at the Republican Convention went, Freshman California Senator Richard Nixon was nominated for Vice President, also with notable Deweys support. Republican politician thought that his experience, aggressive style and political base on the West would help political newcomer Eisenhower

12.
United States presidential election, 1952
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The United States presidential election of 1952 was that nations 42nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4,1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was the winner, ending a string of Democratic wins that stretched back to 1932. He carried the Republican Party to narrow control of the House, during this time, Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was at a high level, as was fear of communism in the US, epitomized by the campaign of McCarthyism. Foreign policy was an issue in the race for the Republican nomination. The nation was polarized over the stalemated Korean War, and the extent of corruption in the government became a major issue as well. The economy was prosperous and economic and social issues played little role in the campaign, incumbent President Harry S. Truman, knocked out of the race by a poor showing in the early primaries, decided to back Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson had gained a reputation in Illinois as a reformer and intellectual, however, President Truman had several meetings with Stevenson about the Presidents desire for Stevenson to become the standard-bearer for the party. Truman became very frustrated with Stevenson and his level of indecision before Stevenson actually committed to running. The Republican Party saw a battle for its nomination contest between Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio and Eisenhower. The issue was foreign policy, with Eisenhower supporters attacking Taft as too isolationist, Taft saw little role for the United States in the Cold War. Eisenhower, the former NATO commander and war hero, narrowly defeated Taft. Eisenhower then crusaded against the Truman policies he blasted as Korea, Communism, Eisenhower did well in all major demographic and regional groups outside the Deep South. Republican candidates, The fight for the Republican nomination was between General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who became the candidate of the partys eastern establishment. The moderate Eastern Republicans were led by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the moderates were also concerned with ending the Republicans losing streak in presidential elections, they felt that the personally popular Eisenhower had the best chance of beating the Democrats. For this reason, Dewey himself declined the notion of a run for president. The conservative Republicans led by Taft were based in the Midwest, the conservatives wanted to abolish many of the New Deal welfare programs, in foreign policy they were often non-interventionists who believed that America should avoid alliances with foreign powers. Taft had been a candidate for the Republican nomination in 1940 and 1948, Taft, who was 62 when the campaign began, freely admitted that 1952 was his last chance to win the nomination, and this led his supporters to work hard for him. Tafts weakness, which he was never able to overcome, was the fear of many party bosses that he was too conservative, Warren, although highly popular in California, refused to campaign in the presidential primaries and thus limited his chances of winning the nomination. He did retain the support of the California delegation, and his supporters hoped that, in the event of an Eisenhower-Taft deadlock, Warren might emerge as a compromise candidate

United States presidential election, 1952
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All 531 electoral votes of the Electoral College 266 electoral votes needed to win
United States presidential election, 1952
United States presidential election, 1952
United States presidential election, 1952
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SenatorRobert A. Taft from Ohio

13.
First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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The first inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th President of the United States was held on January 20,1953, at the east portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D. C. The inauguration marked the commencement of the first four-year term of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President, chief Justice Fred M. Vinson administered the presidential oath of office to Eisenhower. The vice presidential oath was administered to Nixon by Senator William Knowland, afterward, he recited his own prayer, rather than kissing the Bible. Arends Representative Joseph W. Martin Representative Sam Rayburn United States presidential election,1952 Presidency of Dwight D

14.
Korean War
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The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, U. S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments, both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union, on that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83, Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation, twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UNs military personnel. After the first two months of war, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter, in September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many North Korean troops. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, at this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951, after these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate, North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in combat for the first time in history. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed, the agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, continue to the present, in the U. S. the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a police action as it was an undeclared military action, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. In South Korea, the war is referred to as 625 or the 6–2–5 Upheaval. In North Korea, the war is referred to as the Fatherland Liberation War or alternatively the Chosǒn War. In China, the war is called the War to Resist U. S

15.
Atoms for Peace
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Atoms for Peace was the title of a speech delivered by U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8,1953. I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new – one which I and that new language is the language of atomic warfare. The United States then launched an Atoms for Peace program that supplied equipment and information to schools, hospitals, the first nuclear reactors in Iran, Israel and Pakistan were built under the program by American Machine and Foundry. The speech was part of a carefully orchestrated media campaign, called Operation Candor, to enlighten the American public on the risks and it was a propaganda component of the Cold War strategy of containment. The speech was a point for international focus on peaceful uses of atomic energy. It presents an ostensible antithesis to brinkmanship, the intrigue that subsequently kept the world at the edge of war. However recent historians have tended to see the speech as a cold war maneuver directed primarily at U. S. allies in Europe. Eisenhower wanted to make sure that the European allies would go along with the shift in NATO strategy from an emphasis on weapons to cheaper nuclear weapons. Western Europeans wanted reassurance that the U. S. did not intend to provoke a war in Europe. Eisenhower later said that he knew the Soviets would reject the proposal he offered in the speech. Eisenhowers invoking of. those same concepts of universal peace. The UN Charter, placed new emphasis upon the USs grave responsibility for its nuclear actions—past, present, in a large way, this address laid down the rules of engagement for the new kind of warfare, the cold war. Two quotations from the follow, It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive and it wants agreement, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life. Prior to Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace speech the state of development in the world was under the strictest of secrecies. With atomic development kept so far under wraps there were no safety protocols, the great part about his speech is the motive, how ingenious to take a horrible weapon and repurpose it to make the world a better place. During his time in office the nuclear holdings of the US rose from 1,005 to 20,000 weapons, Atoms for Peace opened up nuclear research to civilians and countries that had not previously possessed nuclear technology

Atoms for Peace
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The Atoms for Peace program distributed nuclear technology, materials, and know-how to many countries with less advanced research.

16.
New Look (policy)
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The New Look was the name given to the national security policy of the United States during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It reflected Eisenhowers concern for balancing the Cold War military commitments of the United States with the financial resources. The policy emphasized reliance on nuclear weapons to deter potential threats. It was based on an extensive reappraisal of U. S. military requirements that began among Eisenhower and it was formalized in National Security Council document 162/2, which Eisenhower approved on October 30,1953. In this respect, it differed from NSC68, approved by President Harry S. Truman on September 30,1950, trumans advisers believed that Soviet military capabilities would reach a maximum relative to those of the United States and its allies in the mid-1950s. Eisenhower rejected the idea that one period would be any more dangerous than another and he wanted to avoid, in his own words, an unbearable security burden leading to economic disaster. With the costly experience of the Korean War in mind, Eisenhower was fearful that U. S. resources would be drained by Soviet-inspired regional conflicts, land and naval forces were cut. Although strategic air power attained a lower level than the Truman administration had projected, it became the centerpiece of U. S. security thinking, embodied in the doctrine of Massive Retaliation. Now the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff can shape our military establishment to fit what is our policy, instead of having to try to be ready to meet the enemys many choices. That permits of a selection of military means instead of a multiplication of means, As a result, it is now possible to get, and share, more basic security at less cost. What Dulles implied was that the United States was prepared to respond to a Soviet-backed conventional threat anywhere with a strike against the Soviet Union itself. Furthermore, it provided the Soviet Union with an incentive to strike first to disarm the United States. The emphasis was primarily on nuclear weapons and the justification was still that of economy. However, the United States cannot afford to preclude itself from using nuclear weapons even in a local situation, will best advance U. S. security interests. According to historian Campbell Craig, NSC5440 was a revision of the earlier BNSP. Herman S. Wolk, The New Look, Air Force Magazine, v.65, samuel P. Huntington, The Common Defense, New York, Columbia University Press,1961, pp. 67–68. Quoted in Bernard Brodie, Strategy in the Missile Age, (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,1959, mcGeorge Bundy, a national security adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, states that President Eisenhower, although initially put off by the phrase massive retaliatory power, not only approved the Dulles speech, mcGeorge Bundy, Danger and Survival, New York, Random House,1988, p.256

New Look (policy)
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Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, right, shown here with President Eisenhower in 1956, became identified with the doctrine of "massive retaliation."
New Look (policy)
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President Eisenhower and members of his Cabinet inspect the YB-52 prototype of the B-52.
New Look (policy)
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The B-47 long-range bomber was the mainstay of U.S. deterrence during most of the New Look.
New Look (policy)
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A B-52 long-range bomber. The first models were deployed just as the New Look took shape.

17.
Domino theory
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The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world. Though he never used the term domino theory, U. S. President Dwight D. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, so you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences. S. In 1949, a Communist-backed government, led by Mao Zedong, was instated in China, the installation of the new government was established after the Peoples Liberation Army defeated the Nationalist Republican Government of China in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. Two Chinas were formed - mainland Communist China and Nationalist China Taiwan, the takeover by Communists of the worlds most populous nation was seen in the West as a great strategic loss, prompting the popular question at the time, Who lost China. The United States subsequently ended diplomatic relations with China in response to the communist takeover in 1949, Korea had also partially fallen under Soviet domination at the end of World War II, split from the south of the 38th parallel where U. S. forces subsequently moved into. In 1950 fighting broke out between Communists and Republicans that soon involved troops from China, and the United States and 15 allied countries. Though the war never officially ended, the fighting ended in 1953 with an armistice that left Korea divided into two nations, North Korea and South Korea, Mao Zedongs decision to take on the U. S. In May 1954, the Viet Minh, a Communist and nationalist army, defeated French troops in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and this caused the French to fully withdraw from the region then known as French Indochina, a process they had begun earlier. The regions were divided into four independent countries after a deal was brokered at the 1954 Geneva Conference to end the First Indochina War. This would give them a geographical and economic advantage, and it would make Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia. The loss of regions traditionally within the regional trading area of countries like Japan would encourage the front-line countries to compromise politically with communism. The John F. Kennedy administration intervened in Vietnam in the early 1960s to, among other reasons, when Kennedy came to power there was concern that the communist-led Pathet Lao in Laos would provide the Viet Cong with bases, and that eventually they could take over Laos. The primary evidence for the theory is the spread of communist rule in three Southeast Asian countries in 1975, following the communist takeover of Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos. It can further be argued that before they finished taking Vietnam prior to the 1950s, note the Malayan Emergency, the Hukbalahap Rebellion in the Philippines, and the increasing involvement with Communists by Sukarno of Indonesia from the late 1950s until he was deposed in 1967. All of these were unsuccessful Communist attempts to take over Southeast Asian countries which stalled when communist forces were focused in Vietnam. Meeting with President Ford and Henry Kissinger in 1975 Lee Kuan Yew argued that there is a tendency in the U. S. Congress not to want to export jobs, but we have to have the jobs if we are to stop Communism. We have done that, moving from simple to more complex skilled labor, if we stop this process, it will do more harm that you can ever repair with aid

18.
Interstate Highway System
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The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways is a network of controlled-access highways that forms a part of the National Highway System of the United States. The system is named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed its formation, construction was authorized by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, and the original portion was completed 35 years later, although some urban routes were cancelled and never built. The network has since been extended and, as of 2013, as of 2013, about one-quarter of all vehicle miles driven in the country use the Interstate system. In 2006, the cost of construction was estimated at about $425 billion, the nations revenue needs associated with World War I prevented any significant implementation of this policy, which expired in 1921. In the plan, Mehren proposed a 50, 000-mile system, the system would include two percent of all roads and would pass through every state at a cost of $25,000 per mile, providing commercial as well as military transport benefits. As the landmark 1916 law expired, new legislation was passed—the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 and this new road construction initiative once again provided for federal matching funds for road construction and improvement, $75 million allocated annually. The Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide a list of roads that it considered necessary for national defense. A boom in construction followed throughout the decade of the 1920s. As automobile traffic increased, planners saw a need for such a national system to supplement the existing, largely non-freeway. By the late 1930s, planning had expanded to a system of new superhighways, in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Thomas MacDonald, chief at the Bureau of Public Roads, a hand-drawn map of the United States marked with eight superhighway corridors for study. He recognized that the system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies. The publication in 1955 of the General Location of National System of Interstate Highways, informally known as the Yellow Book, assisting in the planning was Charles Erwin Wilson, who was still head of General Motors when President Eisenhower selected him as Secretary of Defense in January 1953. The Interstate Highway System was authorized on June 29,1956 by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, popularly known as the National Interstate, three states have claimed the title of first Interstate Highway. Missouri claims that the first three contracts under the new program were signed in Missouri on August 2,1956, the first contract signed was for upgrading a section of US Route 66 to what is now designated Interstate 44. On August 13,1956, Missouri awarded the first contract based on new Interstate Highway funding, kansas claims that it was the first to start paving after the act was signed. Preliminary construction had taken place before the act was signed, the state marked its portion of I-70 as the first project in the United States completed under the provisions of the new Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The Pennsylvania Turnpike could also be considered one of the first Interstate Highways, on October 1,1940,162 miles of the highway now designated I‑70 and I‑76 opened between Irwin and Carlisle. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania refers to the turnpike as the Granddaddy of the Pikes, October 12,1979, The final section of the Canada to Mexico freeway Interstate 5 is dedicated near Stockton, California

Interstate Highway System
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A rural stretch of I-5, with two lanes in each direction separated by a large grassy median and with cross-traffic limited to overpasses and underpasses
Interstate Highway System
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Interstate Highways in the 48 contiguous states. Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico also have Interstate Highways. (See version with numbers.)
Interstate Highway System
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I‑55 under construction in Mississippi, photo from May 1972
Interstate Highway System
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Interstate highway in New Jersey built to modern standards

19.
United States presidential election, 1956
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The United States presidential election of 1956 was the 43rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6,1956. The popular incumbent President, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, successfully ran for re-election, the election was a re-match of 1952, as Eisenhowers opponent in 1956 was Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, whom Eisenhower had defeated four years earlier. Eisenhower was popular, although his health had become a quiet problem, Stevenson remained popular with a core of liberal Democrats, but held no office and had no real base. As the country enjoyed peace - Eisenhower had ended the Korean War - and economic growth, compared to the 1952 election, Eisenhower gained Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia from Stevenson, while losing Missouri. This was the last presidential election before the admissions of Alaska and Hawaii and this is also the last election in which all the mainland states won by the Democrats were contiguous, except in 1972 and 1984, when they only carried one state. In 1955, Eisenhower had suffered a heart attack. However, he recovered after both incidents, and after being cleared by his doctors, he decided to run for a second term. Given Eisenhowers enormous popularity, he was re-nominated with no opposition at the 1956 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, the only question among Republicans was whether Vice-President Richard Nixon would again be Eisenhowers running mate. However, Harold Stassen was the only Republican to publicly oppose Nixons re-nomination for Vice-President, Nixon had also reshaped the vice-presidency, using it as a platform to campaign for Republican state and local candidates across the country, and these candidates came to his defense. In the spring of 1956, Eisenhower publicly announced that Nixon would again be his running mate, unlike 1952, conservative Republicans did not attempt to shape the platform. At the convention, one voted for a fictitious Joe Smith for Vice-President to prevent a unanimous vote. Kefauver won the New Hampshire primary unopposed, after Kefauver upset Stevenson in the Minnesota primary, Stevenson, realizing that he was in trouble, agreed to debate Kefauver in Florida. Stevenson and Kefauver held the first televised debate on May 21,1956. Stevenson carried Florida by a 52-48% margin, by the time of the California primary in June 1956, Kefauvers campaign had run low on money and could not compete for publicity and advertising with the well-funded Stevenson. Stevenson won the California primary by a 63-37% margin, and Kefauver soon withdrew from the race, averell Harriman, who was backed by former President Harry S. Truman, challenged Stevenson for the nomination. However, Stevensons delegate lead was too large for Harriman to overcome. The roll call, as reported in Richard C, Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records, pp. This set off a scramble among several candidates to win the nomination

20.
Sputnik crisis
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The crisis was a key event in the early Cold War that triggered the creation of NASA and Space Race between the two superpowers. The satellite was launched on October 4,1957 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the term was coined by then US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The United States was the dominant world power in the early 1950s, lockheed U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union provided intelligence that the US held the advantage in nuclear capability. The launch and orbit of Sputnik 1 suggested that the USSR had made a leap forward in technology. This spurred the United States to make substantial investments in research and development, education. The Juno I rocket that carried the first US satellite Explorer 1 had been ready to launch in 1956, the Armys PGM-19 Jupiter from which Juno was derived had been mothballed on the orders of defense secretary Charles Erwin Wilson amid interservice rivalry with the US Air Forces PGM-17 Thor. The USSR used ICBM technology to launch Sputnik into space and this essentially gave the Soviets two propaganda victories at once. This proved that the Soviets had rockets capable of sending nuclear weapons from Russia to Western Europe and this was the most immediate threat that the launch of Sputnik 1 posed. The United States, a land with a history of security from European wars. A contributing factor to the Sputnik Crisis was that the Soviets had not released a photograph of the satellite for five days after the launch, until this point, its appearance remained a mystery to Americans. Another factor was Sputniks weight of 184 pounds which dwarfed the United States plans to launch a satellite of 21.5 pounds, the Soviet claim seemed outrageous to many American officials who doubted its accuracy. US rockets at the time produced 150,000 pounds-force of thrust, in fact, the R-7 rocket that launched Sputnik 1 into space produced almost 1,000,000 pounds-force of thrust. All these factors contributed to the American peoples perception that they were greatly behind the Soviets in the development of space technologies, hours after the launch, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Astronomy Department rigged an ad-hoc interferometer to measure signals from the satellite. Gillies and Jim Snyder programmed the ILLIAC I computer to calculate the orbit from this data. The programming and calculation was completed in less than two days, the rapid publication of the ephemeris in the journal Nature within a month of the satellite launch helped to dispel some of the fear created by the Sputnik launch. It also lent credence to the idea that the Sputnik launch was part of an organized effort to dominate space. The same rocket that launched Sputnik could send a nuclear warhead anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes, the Soviets had demonstrated this capability on 21 August with a 6, 000-kilometer test flight of the R-7 booster. The event was announced by TASS five days later and was reported in other media

Sputnik crisis
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Soviet stamp depicting Sputnik's orbit around Earth

21.
National Defense Education Act
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The National Defense Education Act was signed into law on September 2,1958, providing funding to United States education institutions at all levels. It followed a national sense that U. S. scientists were falling behind scientists in the Soviet Union. The act authorized funding for four years, increasing funding per year, for example, in total, over a billion dollars was directed towards improving American science curricula. However, in the aftermath of McCarthyism, a mandate was inserted in the act that all beneficiaries must complete an affidavit disclaiming belief in the overthrow of the U. S. government. This requisite loyalty statement stirred concern and protest from the American Association of University Professors, the NDEA was influenced by the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik on October 4,1957. U. S. citizens feared that education in the USSR was superior to that in the United States, the year 1957 also coincided with an acute shortage of mathematicians in the United States. The United States could no rely on European refugees for all of its mathematicians, though they remained an important source. At the time, mathematics was interpreted as pure mathematics rather than applied mathematics, the problem in the 1950s and 1960s was that industry, including defense, was absorbing the mathematicians who should have been at high schools and universities training the next generation. At the university level, even recently, there have been years when it was difficult to hire applied mathematicians. Additionally, more high school graduates were beginning to attend college, in 1940 about one-half million Americans attended college, which was about 15 percent of their age group. By 1960, however, college enrollments had expanded to 3.6 million, by 1970,7.5 million students were attending colleges in the United States, or 40 percent of college-age youths. The act, therefore, was designed to fulfill two purposes, first, it was designed to provide the country with specific defense oriented personnel. This included providing federal help to foreign scholars, area studies centers. Title I of the NDEA serves as an introduction to the content, Title II authorizes the provision of student loans and provides terms by which they may be awarded. Initially, Title II provided scholarships rather than loans, however, some members of Congress expressed worry about the message sent by giving students a “free ride. ”The House version of the bill eliminated scholarship money, while the Senate reduced the amount of scholarship money. By the time the bill was passed into law, student aid was exclusively loan-based, Title III provides additional financial assistance for the purposes of strengthening science, math, and foreign language programs. Latin and Greek programs are not funded under this title, on the grounds that they are not modern foreign languages, Title IV provides funding for graduate fellowships in order to increase the number of graduate-level professionals and university professors. Priority was given to students who stated an interest in becoming a professor, however, certain fields were specifically exempted from these fellowships

National Defense Education Act
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National Defense Education Act

22.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems

NASA
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1963 photo showing Dr. William H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right). NASA Administrator James Webb in background. They are discussing the Mariner program, with a model presented.
NASA
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Seal of NASA
NASA
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At launch control for the May 28, 1964, Saturn I SA-6 launch. Wernher von Braun is at center.
NASA
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Mercury-Atlas 6 launch on February 20, 1962

23.
DARPA
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the U. S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. DARPA was created in February 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and its purpose was to formulate and execute research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, with the aim to reach beyond immediate military requirements. DARPA was created in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957, the name of the organization changed several times from its founding name ARPA, DARPA, ARPA, and DARPA. DARPA is independent from other research and development and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA has about 240 employees, of whom 13 are in management, dARPA-funded projects have provided significant technologies that influenced many non-military fields, such as computer networking and graphical user interfaces in information technology. S. The mission statement has evolved over time, today, DARPAs mission is still to prevent technological surprise to the U. S. but also to create technological surprise for U. S. enemies. The creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency was authorized by President Dwight D.15 and its creation was directly attributed to the launching of Sputnik and to U. S. realization that the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to rapidly exploit military technology. Initial funding of ARPA was $520 million, ARPAs first director, Roy Johnson, left a $160,000 management job at General Electric for an $18,000 job at ARPA. Herbert York from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was hired as his scientific assistant, Johnson and York were both keen on space projects, but when NASA was established later in 1958 all space projects and most of ARPAs funding were transferred to it. Johnson resigned and ARPA was repurposed to do high-risk, high-gain, far out basic research, ARPAs second director was Brigadier General Austin W. Betts, who resigned in early 1961. He was succeeded by Jack Ruina who served until 1963, Ruina, the first scientist to administer ARPA, managed to raise its budget to $250 million. In pursuit of this mission, DARPA has developed and transferred technology programs encompassing a range of scientific disciplines that address the full spectrum of national security needs. From 1958 to 1965, ARPAs emphasis centered on major issues, including space, ballistic missile defense. During 1960, all of its civilian space programs were transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the military space programs to the individual Services. This allowed ARPA to concentrate its efforts on the Project Defender, Project Vela, and Project AGILE Programs, and to work on computer processing, behavioral sciences. The DEFENDER and AGILE Programs formed the foundation of DARPA sensor, surveillance, and directed energy R&D, particularly in the study of radar, infrared sensing, ARPA at this point played an early role in Transit a predecessor to the Global Positioning System. Fast-forward to 1959 when a joint effort between DARPA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory began to fine-tune the early explorers’ discoveries, TRANSIT, sponsored by the Navy and developed under the leadership of Dr. Richard Kirschner at Johns Hopkins, was the first satellite positioning system. The agency was renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1972, and during the early 1970s, it emphasized direct energy programs, information processing, concerning information processing, DARPA made great progress, initially through its support of the development of time-sharing

DARPA
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DARPA
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DARPA's former headquarters in the Virginia Square neighborhood of Arlington. This agency recently moved to 675 North Randolph Street, near the Ballston Common Mall.

24.
Little Rock Nine
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The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the U. S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas,347 U. S.483, on May 17,1954. Tied to the 14th Amendment, the decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional, after the decision, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People attempted to register black students in previously all-white schools in cities throughout the South. In Little Rock, the city of Arkansas, the Little Rock School Board agreed to comply with the high courts ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the board on May 24,1955. The plan would be implemented during the fall of the 1957 school year, by 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance. Ernest Green was the first African American to graduate from Central High School, one of the plans created during attempts to desegregate the schools of Little Rock was by school superintendent Virgil Blossom. The initial approach proposed substantial integration beginning quickly and extending to all grades within a matter of many years and this original proposal was scrapped and replaced with one that more closely met a set of minimum standards worked out in attorney Richard B. This finalized plan would start in September 1957 and would integrate one high school, the second phase of the plan would take place in 1960 and would open up a few junior high schools to a few black children. The final stage would involve limited desegregation of the grade schools at an unspecified time. This plan was met with varied reactions from the NAACP branch of Little Rock, militant members like the Bateses opposed the plan on the grounds that it was vague, indefinite, slow-moving and indicative of an intent to stall further on public integration. This view was short lived, however, changes were made to the plan, the most detrimental being a new transfer system that would allow students to move out of the attendance zone to which they were assigned. The unaltered Blossom Plan had gerrymandered school districts to guarantee a black majority at Horace Mann High and a white majority at Hall High. This meant that, even though black students lived closer to Central, the altered plan gave white students the choice of not attending Horace Mann, but didnt give black students the option of attending Hall. This new Blossom Plan did not sit well with the NAACP and after failed negotiations with the school board and this lawsuit, along with a number of other factors contributed to the Little Rock School Crisis of 1957. Several segregationist councils threatened to hold protests at Central High and physically block the black students from entering the school, Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists on September 4,1957. The sight of a line of soldiers blocking out the students made national headlines, regarding the accompanying crowd, one of the nine students, Elizabeth Eckford, recalled, They moved closer and closer

25.
1960 U-2 incident
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Powers parachuted safely and was captured. The U-2 flew at altitudes that could not be reached by Soviet fighter jets of the era, a facility established in Badaber,10 miles from Peshawar, was a cover for a major communications intercept operation run by the United States National Security Agency. Badaber was an excellent location because of its proximity to Soviet central Asia and this enabled the monitoring of missile test sites, key infrastructure and communications. The U-2 spy-in-the-sky was allowed to use the Pakistan Air Force portion of Peshawar Airport to gain photo intelligence in an era before satellite observation. At a time like the Cold War, any act of aggression could spark open conflict between the two countries, with the United Kingdom still reeling from the aftermath of the Suez Crisis and in no position to snub American requests, the British government was amenable to the proposal. The final two missions before the summit were to be flown by American pilots, the U-2 left Soviet air space and landed at an Iranian airstrip at Zahedan. It was clear that the U. S, Central Intelligence Agency had successfully performed an extraordinary intelligence operation. The next flight of the U-2 spyplane from Peshawar airport was planned for late April, Lockheed U-2C spy plane, Article 358, was ferried from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to the US base at Peshawar airport by pilot Glen Dunaway. Fuel for the aircraft had been ferried to Peshawar the previous day in a US Air Force C-124 transport, a US Air Force C-130 followed, carrying the ground crew, mission pilot Francis Gary Powers, and the back up pilot, Bob Ericson. On the morning of 29 April, the crew in Badaber was informed that the mission had been delayed one day, as a result, Bob Ericson flew Article 358 back to Incirlik and John Shinn ferried another U-2C, Article 360, from Incirlik to Peshawar. On 30 April, the mission was delayed one day further because of bad weather over the Soviet Union, at the time, the USSR had six ICBM launch pads, two at Baikonur and four at Plesetsk. Mayak, then named Chelyabinsk-65, an important industrial center of plutonium processing, was another of the targets that Powers was to photograph. A close study of Powerss account of the shows that one of the last targets he overflew. Because of the U-2s extreme operating altitude, Soviet attempts to intercept the plane using fighter aircraft failed. The U-2s course was out of range of several of the nearest SAM sites, the U-2 was eventually brought down near Kosulino, Ural Region, by the first of three SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles fired by a battery commanded by Mikhail Voronov. The SA-2 site had previously identified by the CIA, using photos taken during Vice President Richard Nixons visit to Sverdlovsk the previous summer. Powers bailed out but neglected to disconnect his oxygen hose first and struggled with it until it broke, Powers was captured soon after parachuting safely down onto Russian soil. Powers carried with him a silver dollar which contained a lethal, shellfish-derived saxitoxin-tipped needle

1960 U-2 incident
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A U-2 aircraft similar to the one shot down
1960 U-2 incident
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U-2 "GRAND SLAM" flight plan on 1 May 1960, from CIA publication 'The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 And Oxcart Programs, 1954-1974', declassified 25 June 2013.
1960 U-2 incident
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Part of the U-2 wreckage.
1960 U-2 incident
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U-2 with fictitious NASA markings and serial number at the NASA Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, on 6 May 1960 (NASA photo).

26.
General of the Army (United States)
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General of the Army is a five-star general officer and the second highest possible rank in the United States Army. A General of the Army ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to a fleet admiral, there is no established equivalent five-star rank in the other federal uniformed services. Often called a general, the rank of General of the Army has historically been reserved for wartime use and is not currently active in the U. S. military. The General of the Army insignia consisted of five 3/8th inch stars in a pentagonal pattern, the insignia is paired with the gold and enameled United States Coat of Arms on service coat shoulder loops. The silver colored five-star metal insignia alone would be worn for use as an insignia of grade. Soft shoulder epaulettes with five 7/16th inch stars in silver thread and gold-threaded United States Coat of Arms on green cloth were worn with shirts and sweaters. A special rank of General of the Armies, which ranks above General of the Army, exists but has been conferred only twice, to John J. Pershing and posthumously to George Washington. On July 25,1866, the U. S. Congress established the rank of General of the Army of the United States for General Ulysses S. Grant. His pay was four hundred dollars per month, and his allowance for fuel and quarters except when his headquarters are in Washington, when appointed General of the Army, Grant wore the rank insignia of four stars and coat buttons arranged in three groups of four. Unlike the World War II rank with a title, the 1866 rank of General of the Army was a four-star rank. This rank held all the authority and power of a 1799 proposal for a rank of General of the Armies even though Grant was never called by this title. In contrast to the modern rank of general, only one officer at a time could hold the 1866–1888 rank of General of the Army. After Grant became the U. S. president, he was succeeded as General of the Army by William T. Sherman, in 1872, Sherman ordered the insignia changed to two stars with the coat of arms of the United States in between. By an Act of June 1,1888, the grade was conferred upon Philip Sheridan, the rank of General of the Army ceased to exist with Sheridans death on August 5,1888. As the logistics and military leadership requirements of World War II escalated after the June 1944 Normandy Landings, the five-star rank and authority of General of the Army and equivalent naval fleet admiral was created by an Act of Congress on a temporary basis when Pub. L. 78–482 was passed on 14 December 1944, as a temporary rank, the temporary rank was then declared permanent 23 March 1946 by Pub. L. 79–333, which also awarded full pay and allowances in the grade to those on the retired list and it was created to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with their British counterparts holding the ranks of field marshal and admiral of the fleet. This second General of the Army rank is not the same as the post-Civil War era version because of its purpose, the insignia for General of the Army, created in 1944, consists of five stars in a pentagonal pattern, with points touching

General of the Army (United States)
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Rank flag of a General of the Army

27.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare

28.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

29.
USSR
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states

30.
Ballistic missile
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A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a ballistic trajectory with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. A ballistic missile is only guided during relatively brief periods of flight and this contrasts to a cruise missile, which is aerodynamically guided in powered flight. Long range intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched on a flight trajectory. Shorter range ballistic missiles stay within the Earths atmosphere, the earliest use of rockets as a weapon date to the 13th Century. A pioneer ballistic missile was the A-4, commonly known as the V-2 rocket developed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of Wernher von Braun. The first successful launch of a V-2 was on October 3,1942, by the end of World War II in May 1945, over 3,000 V-2s had been launched. The R-7 Semyorka was the first intercontinental ballistic missile, a total of 30 nations have deployed operational ballistic missiles. Development continues with around 100 ballistic missile tests in 2007, mostly by China, Iran. In 2010, the U. S. and Russian governments signed a treaty to reduce their inventory of intercontinental ballistic missiles over a period to 1550 units each. Ballistic missiles can be launched from fixed sites or mobile launchers, including vehicles, aircraft, ships, the powered flight portion can last from a few tenths of seconds to several minutes and can consist of multiple rocket stages. When in space and no more thrust is provided, the missile enters free-flight, the re-entry stage begins at an altitude where atmospheric drag plays a significant part in missile trajectory, and lasts until missile impact. The course taken by ballistic missiles has two significant desirable properties, first, ballistic missiles that fly above the atmosphere have a much longer range than would be possible for cruise missiles of the same size. Powered rocket flight through thousands of kilometers of air would require greater amounts of fuel, making the launch vehicles larger and easier to detect. Powered missiles that can cover similar ranges, such as missiles, do not use rocket motors for the majority of their flight. Despite this, cruise missiles have not made ballistic missiles obsolete, due to the major advantage. An ICBM can strike a target within a 10,000 km range in about 30 to 35 minutes, with terminal speeds of over 5,000 m/s, ballistic missiles are much harder to intercept than cruise missiles, due to the much shorter time available to intercept them. This is why ballistic missiles are some of the most feared weapons available, despite the fact that cruise missiles are cheaper, more mobile, Ballistic missiles can vary widely in range and use, and are often divided into categories based on range. A comparable missile would be the decommissioned Chinas JL-1 SLBM with a range of less than 2, tactical, short- and medium-range missiles are often collectively referred to as tactical and theatre ballistic missiles, respectively

31.
Arsenal
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An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury or armory are mostly regarded as synonyms, although differences in usage exist. A sub-armory is a place of storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition. From Italian, arsenale, and French, arsenal, from Arabic, دار تعبئة‎‎, dār a-tabiya, in a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, the importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress. The usual subdivision of branches in a great arsenal is into storekeeping, under construction, Gun factory, carriage factory, laboratory, small-arms factory, harness and tent factory, powder factory, etc. In a second-class arsenal there would be instead of these factories. Frederick Taylor introduced command and control techniques to arsenals, including the U. S. s Watertown Arsenal, armorer Dresden Armory Halifax Armoury Harpers Ferry Armory Kremlin Armoury Royal Arsenal Royal Armouries Springfield Armory Zeughaus Magazine

32.
United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source

33.
CIA
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

34.
John F. Kennedy
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Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, and his New Frontier domestic program was largely enacted as a memorial to him after his death. Kennedy also established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, Kennedys time in office was marked by high tensions with Communist states. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam by a factor of 18 over President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Cuba, a failed attempt was made at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in April 1961. He subsequently rejected plans by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to orchestrate false-flag attacks on American soil in order to gain approval for a war against Cuba. After military service in the United States Naval Reserve in World War II and he was elected subsequently to the U. S. Senate and served as the junior Senator from Massachusetts from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President, and Republican presidential candidate, Richard Nixon in the 1960 U. S, at age 43, he became the youngest elected president and the second-youngest president. Kennedy was also the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president, to date, Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22,1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon and determined to have fired the shots that hit the President from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald two days later in a jail corridor, then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded Kennedy after he died in the hospital. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, the majority of Americans alive at the time of the assassination, and continuing through 2013, believed that there was a conspiracy and that Oswald was not the only shooter. Since the 1960s, information concerning Kennedys private life has come to light, including his health problems, Kennedy continues to rank highly in historians polls of U. S. presidents and with the general public. His average approval rating of 70% is the highest of any president in Gallups history of systematically measuring job approval and his grandfathers P. J. Kennedy and Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald were both Massachusetts politicians. All four of his grandparents were the children of Irish immigrants, Kennedy had an elder brother, Joseph Jr. and seven younger siblings, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted. Kennedy lived in Brookline for ten years and attended the Edward Devotion School, the Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School through 4th grade. In 1927, the Kennedy family moved to a stately twenty-room, Georgian-style mansion at 5040 Independence Avenue in the Hudson Hill neighborhood of Riverdale, Bronx and he attended the lower campus of Riverdale Country School, a private school for boys, from 5th to 7th grade. Two years later, the moved to 294 Pondfield Road in the New York City suburb of Bronxville, New York. The Kennedy family spent summers at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in September 1930, Kennedy—then 13 years old—attended the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. In late April 1931, he required an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury, in September 1931, Kennedy attended Choate, a boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, for 9th through 12th grade

John F. Kennedy
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John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
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The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1931 with Jack at top left in white shirt. Ted was born the following year.
John F. Kennedy
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Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy (standing at right) with his PT-109 crew, 1943.
John F. Kennedy
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Kennedy on his navy patrol boat, the PT-109, 1943.

35.
Eisenhower administration
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The presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower began on January 20,1953 at noon Eastern Standard Time, when he was inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States, and ended on January 20,1961. Eisenhower, a Republican, took office as president following a win over Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. This victory upended the New Deal Coalition that had kept the presidency in the hands of the Democratic Party for 20 years, four years later, in the 1956 presidential election, he defeated Stevenson in a landslide again, winning a second term in office. Eisenhower was the first U. S. president to be limited to two terms in office under the 22nd Amendment. He was succeeded in office by Democrat John F. Kennedy, the nation experienced considerable economic prosperity during the Eisenhower Presidency, except for a sharp recession in 1958–59. It was also, following the conclusion of the Korean War in the summer of 1953, at peace, the Presidents main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. A self-described progressive conservative, he continued New Deal programs and expanded Social Security and he also spurred development of the Interstate Highway System, and after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, authorized the establishment of NASA. Voted Gallups most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U. S. Presidents. Eisenhower had been a favorite of the New Dealers during the war, especially Franklin D. Roosevelt, rejecting Democratic efforts to nominate him in 1948 and 1952, Eisenhower instead chose to run for the Republican Party nomination in 1952. His goal was to prevent Robert A. Tafts non-interventionism—such as opposition to NATO—from becoming public policy, on domestic issues they were in general agreement, and a compromise was reached after Eisenhower won the nomination that Taft would be dominant in domestic affairs and stay out of foreign affairs. Ike crusaded against Korea—Communism—Corruption, identifying these as failures of the Truman administration and he electrified the country just before the election by promising to personally go to Korea and end that stalemated conflict. Eisenhowers choice for vice-president on his ticket was Richard Nixon and he saw Nixons strong vocal opposition against communism as an asset to his campaign. When Nixons Checkers scandal was revealed to the public, Eisenhower still kept Nixon on the ticket, in the 1952 U. S. presidential election, Eisenhower easily defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II and became the first career soldier since Ulysses S. Grant to be elected president. Although many presidents have served in the military, Eisenhower was the general to serve as president in the 20th century. The United States presidential election of 1956 was held on November 6,1956, Eisenhower, the popular incumbent, successfully ran for re-election. The election was a re-match of 1952, as his opponent in 1956 was Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, compared to the 1952 election, Eisenhower gained Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia from Stevenson, while losing Missouri. This was the last presidential election before the admissions of Alaska and Hawaii, Eisenhower created the positions of White House Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor. He expanded the role of the National Security Council and was the first president to conduct televised press conferences, reporters of that time have said that Eisenhower was the first president to employ the non-answer during these events

36.
Sputnik 1
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Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957 and it was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses were detectable and this surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, tracking and studying Sputnik 1 from Earth provided scientists with valuable information, even though the satellite itself wasnt equipped with sensors. The density of the atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit. Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No. 1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, the satellite travelled at about 29,000 kilometres per hour, taking 96.2 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, the signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earths atmosphere, after travelling about 70 million km, on 17 December 1954, chief Soviet rocket scientist Sergei Korolev addressed Dimitri Ustinov and proposed a developmental plan for an artificial satellite. Korolev forwarded a report by Mikhail Tikhonravov with an overview of similar projects abroad, Tikhonravov had emphasized that the launch of an orbital satellite was an inevitable stage in the development of rocket technology. On 29 July 1955, U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced through his press secretary that the United States would launch an artificial satellite during the International Geophysical Year. A week later, on 8 August, the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approved the proposal to create an artificial satellite. On 30 August Vasily Ryabikov – the head of the State Commission on R-7 rocket test launches – held a meeting where Korolev presented calculation data for a trajectory to the Moon. They decided to develop a version of the R-7 rocket for satellite launches. On 30 January 1956 the Council of Ministers approved practical work on an artificial Earth-orbiting satellite. This satellite, named Object D, was planned to be completed in 1957–58, it would have a mass of 1,000 to 1,400 kg, the first test launch of Object D was scheduled for 1957. These included measuring the density of the atmosphere and its ion composition, the wind, magnetic fields. These data would be valuable in the creation of artificial satellites. A system of stations was to be developed to collect data transmitted by the satellite, observe the satellites orbit

37.
International Geophysical Year
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The International Geophysical Year was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1,1957, to December 31,1958. It marked the end of a period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Joseph Stalins death in 1953 opened the way for this new era of collaboration, sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects, although one notable exception was the mainland Peoples Republic of China, which was protesting against the participation of the Republic of China. East and West agreed to nominate the Belgian Marcel Nicolet as secretary general of the international organization. The timing of IGY was particularly suited to some of these phenomena, both the Soviet Union and the U. S. launched artificial satellites for this event, the Soviet Unions Sputnik 1, launched on October 4,1957, was the first successful artificial satellite. Also detected was the occurrence of hard solar corpuscular radiation that could be highly dangerous for manned space flight. The International Geophysical Year traces its origins to the International Polar Years, on 29 July 1955, James C. Four days later, at the Sixth Congress of International Astronautical Federation in Copenhagen, sedov spoke to international reporters at the Soviet embassy, and announced his countrys intention to launch a satellite as well, in the near future. To the surprise of many, the USSR launched Sputnik 1 as the first artificial Earth satellite on October 4,1957. After several failed Vanguard launches, Wernher von Braun and his team convinced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use one of their US Army missiles for the Explorer program. On November 8,1957, the US Secretary of Defense instructed the US Army to use a modified Jupiter-C rocket to launch a satellite. The US achieved this goal only four months later with Explorer 1, on February 1,1958, Vanguard 1 became the fourth, launched on March 17,1958. The Soviet victory in the Space Race would be followed by considerable political consequences, the British-American survey of the Atlantic, carried out between September 1954 and July 1959, that discovered full length of the mid-Atlantic ridges, was a major discovery during the IGY. Although the 1932 Polar Year accomplished many of its goals, it short on others because of the advance of World War II. In fact, because of the war, much of the data collected, the potential loss of data to war and politics was particularly troubling to the IGY organizing committee. The committee resolved that all observational data shall be available to scientists and they felt that without the free exchange of data across international borders, there would be no point in having an IGY. In April 1957, just three months before the IGY began, scientists representing the various disciplines of the IGY established the World Data Center system, the United States hosted World Data Center A and the Soviet Union hosted World Data Center B. World Data Center C was subdivided among countries in Western Europe, Australia, today, NOAA hosts seven of the fifteen World Data Centers in the United States

International Geophysical Year
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Official emblem of IGY
International Geophysical Year
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A commemorative stamp issued by Japan in 1957 to mark the IGY. The illustration depicts the Japanese Research Ship Sōya and a Penguin.

38.
Dwight Eisenhower
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Dwight David Ike Eisenhower was an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a general in the United States Army during World War II. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43, in 1951, he became the first Supreme Commander of NATO. Eisenhower was of mostly Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry and was raised in a family in Kansas by parents with a strong religious background. He graduated from West Point in 1915 and later married Mamie Doud, after World War II, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and then accepted the post of President at Columbia University. Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, campaigning against communism, Korea and he won in a landslide, defeating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and temporarily upending the New Deal Coalition. Eisenhower was the first U. S. president to be constitutionally term-limited under the 22nd Amendment, Eisenhowers main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. He ordered coups in Iran and Guatemala, Eisenhower gave major aid to help the French in the First Indochina War, and after the French were defeated he gave strong financial support to the new state of South Vietnam. Congress agreed to his request in 1955 for the Formosa Resolution, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Eisenhower authorized the establishment of NASA, which led to the space race. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower condemned the Israeli, British and French invasion of Egypt and he also condemned the Soviet invasion during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action. Eisenhower sent 15,000 U. S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution during the 1958 Lebanon crisis. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident. On the domestic front, he covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking executive privilege and he otherwise left most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. Eisenhower was a conservative who continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security. Eisenhowers two terms saw considerable economic prosperity except for a decline in 1958. Voted Gallups most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U. S. Presidents. The Eisenhauer family migrated from Karlsbrunn in the Saarland, to North America, first settling in York, Pennsylvania, in 1741, accounts vary as to how and when the German name Eisenhauer was anglicized to Eisenhower. Eisenhowers Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors, who were farmers, included Hans Nikolaus Eisenhauer of Karlsbrunn

Dwight Eisenhower
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower
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The Eisenhower family home, Abilene, Kansas.
Dwight Eisenhower
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Eisenhower (2nd from left) and Omar Bradley (2nd from right) were members of the 1912 West Point football team.
Dwight Eisenhower
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Eisenhower (far right) with three unidentified people in 1919, four years after graduating from West Point.

39.
McCarthyism
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McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It originated with President Trumans Executive Order 9835 of March 21,1947, McCarthyism soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators, many people suffered loss of employment or destruction of their careers, some even suffered imprisonment. McCarthyism was a social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate. The historical period that came to be known as the McCarthy era began well before Joseph McCarthys own involvement in it, many factors contributed to McCarthyism, some of them extending back to the years of the First Red Scare, inspired by Communisms emergence as a recognized political force. While the United States was engaged in World War II and allied with the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb in 1949, earlier than many analysts had expected. That same year, Mao Zedongs Communist army gained control of mainland China despite heavy American financial support of the opposing Kuomintang, in 1950, the Korean War began, pitting U. S. U. N. and South Korean forces against Communists from North Korea and China. The following year saw several significant developments regarding Soviet Cold War espionage activities. In January 1950, Alger Hiss, a high-level State Department official, was convicted of perjury, in Great Britain, Klaus Fuchs confessed to committing espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union while working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory during the War. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested in 1950 on charges of stealing atomic bomb secrets for the Soviets and were executed in 1953, there were also more subtle forces encouraging the rise of McCarthyism. It had long been a practice of conservative politicians to refer to progressive reforms such as child labor laws. This tendency increased in the 1930s in reaction to the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in general, the vaguely defined danger of Communist influence was a more common theme in the rhetoric of anti-Communist politicians than was espionage or any other specific activity. He produced a piece of paper which he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department and this speech resulted in a flood of press attention to McCarthy and established the path that made him one of the most recognized politicians in the United States. The first recorded use of the term McCarthyism was in a cartoon by Washington Post editorial cartoonist Herbert Block. The cartoon depicted four leading Republicans trying to push an elephant to stand on a platform atop a stack of ten tar buckets. Block later wrote that there was nothing particularly ingenious about the term, if anyone has a prior claim on it, hes welcome to the word and to the junior senator from Wisconsin along with it. I will also throw in a set of dishes and a case of soap

40.
Nikita Khrushchev
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Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, Khrushchevs party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier. Khrushchev was born in the village of Kalinovka in 1894, close to the border between Russia and Ukraine. He was employed as a metalworker in his youth, and during the Russian Civil War was a political commissar, with the help of Lazar Kaganovich, he worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. He supported Joseph Stalins purges, and approved thousands of arrests, in 1938, Stalin sent him to govern Ukraine, and he continued the purges there. During what was known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was again a commissar, Khrushchev was present at the bloody defense of Stalingrad, a fact he took great pride in throughout his life. After the war, he returned to Ukraine before being recalled to Moscow as one of Stalins close advisers, in the power struggle triggered by Stalins death in 1953, Khrushchev, after several years, emerged victorious. On 25 February 1956, at the 20th Party Congress, he delivered the Secret Speech, denouncing Stalins purges and his domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in agriculture. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces. Despite the cuts, Khrushchevs rule saw the most tense years of the Cold War, flaws in Khrushchevs policies eroded his popularity and emboldened potential opponents, who quietly rose in strength and deposed the premier in October 1964. However, he did not suffer the fate of previous losers of Soviet power struggles, and was pensioned off with an apartment in Moscow. His lengthy memoirs were smuggled to the West and published in part in 1970, Khrushchev died in 1971 of heart disease. Khrushchev was born on 15 April 1894, in Kalinovka, a village in what is now Russias Kursk Oblast and his parents, Sergei Khrushchev and Ksenia Khrushcheva, were poor peasants of Russian origin, and had a daughter two years Nikitas junior, Irina. Sergei Khrushchev was employed in a number of positions in the Donbas area of far eastern Ukraine, working as a railwayman, as a miner, and laboring in a brick factory. Wages were much higher in the Donbas than in the Kursk region, Kalinovka was a peasant village, Khrushchevs teacher, Lydia Shevchenko, later stated that she had never seen a village as poor as Kalinovka had been. Nikita worked as a herdsboy from an early age and he was schooled for a total of four years, part in the village parochial school and part under Shevchenkos tutelage in Kalinovkas state school. She urged Nikita to seek education, but family finances did not permit this. In 1908, Sergei Khrushchev moved to the Donbas city of Yuzovka, fourteen-year-old Nikita followed later that year, while Ksenia Khrushcheva and her daughter came after

41.
Lockheed U-2
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It provides day and night, high-altitude, all-weather intelligence gathering. The U-2 has also used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration. Early versions of the U-2 were involved in several events through the Cold War, being flown over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, in 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2A over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile. Another U-2, piloted by Major Rudolf Anderson, Jr. was lost in a fashion during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The U-2 is one of a handful of types to have served the USAF for over 50 years. The newest models entered service in the 1980s, the current model, the U-2S, received its most recent technical upgrade in 2012. They have taken part in post–Cold War conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, after World War II, the U. S. military desired better strategic aerial reconnaissance to help determine Soviet capabilities and intentions. Richard Leghorn of the USAF suggested that an aircraft that could fly at 60,000 feet should be safe from the MiG-17, the Soviet Unions best interceptor, which could barely reach 45,000 feet. He and others believed that Soviet radar, which used American equipment provided during the war, the highest-flying aircraft available to America and its allies at the time was the English Electric Canberra, which could reach 48,000 feet. Air Research and Development Command mandated design changes made the aircraft more durable for combat. The Soviet Union, unlike the United States and Britain, had improved radar technology after the war and it was thought that an aircraft that could fly at 70,000 feet would be beyond the reach of Soviet fighters, missiles, and radar. Another USAF officer, John Seaberg, wrote a request for proposal in 1953 for an aircraft that could reach 70,000 feet over a target with 1,500 nmi of operational radius. The USAF decided to solicit designs only from smaller companies that could give the project more attention. Under the code name Bald Eagle, it contracts to Bell Aircraft, Martin Aircraft. Officials at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation heard about the project and decided to submit an unsolicited proposal, to save weight and increase altitude, Lockheed executive John Carter suggested that the design eliminate landing gear and avoid attempting to meet combat load factors for the airframe. The company asked Clarence Kelly Johnson to come up such a design. Johnson was Lockheeds best aeronautical engineer, responsible for the P-38 and he was also known for completing projects ahead of schedule, working in a separate division of the company, informally called the Skunk Works. Johnsons design, named CL-282, was based on the Lockheed XF-104 with long, slender wings, the design was powered by the General Electric J73 engine and took off from a special cart and landed on its belly

42.
Curtis LeMay
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Curtis Emerson LeMay was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party candidate George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election. Curtis LeMay is credited with designing and implementing an effective, but also controversial, during the war, he was known for planning and executing a massive fire bombing campaign against cities in Japan and a crippling minelaying campaign in Japans internal waterways. After the war, he initiated the Berlin airlift, then reorganized the Strategic Air Command into an instrument of nuclear war. He served as Chief of Staff of the U. S. Air Force from 1961 until his retirement in 1965, LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio, on November 15,1906. LeMay was of English and distant French Huguenot heritage and his father, Erving Edwin LeMay, was at times an ironworker and general handyman, but he never held a job longer than a few months. His mother, Arizona Dove LeMay, did her best to hold her family together, with very limited income, his family moved around the country as his father looked for work, going as far as Montana and California. Eventually they returned to his city of Columbus. LeMay attended Columbus public schools, graduating from Columbus South High School, working his way through college, he graduated with a bachelors degree in civil engineering. While at Ohio State he was a member of the National Society of Pershing Rifles and he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve in October 1929. He received a commission in the United States Army Air Corps in January 1930. While finishing at Ohio State, he took flight training at Norton Field in Columbus, on June 9,1934, he married Helen Estelle Maitland, with whom he had one child, Patricia Jane LeMay Lodge, known as Janie. LeMay became a pilot and, while stationed in Hawaii. In August 1937, as navigator under pilot and commander Caleb V, in 1940 he was navigator for Haynes on the prototype Boeing XB-15 heavy bomber, flying a survey from Panama over the Galapagos islands. War brought rapid promotion and increased responsibility, when his crews were not flying missions, they were subjected to relentless training, as LeMay believed that training was the key to saving their lives. You train as you fight, was one of his cardinal rules, throughout his career, LeMay was widely and fondly known among his troops as Old Iron Pants, and the Big Cigar. He took this unit to England in October 1942 as part of the Eighth Air Force, in September 1943, he became the first commander of the newly formed 3d Air Division. He personally led several missions, including the Regensburg section of the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission of August 17,1943. In that mission, he led 146 B-17s to Regensburg, Germany, beyond the range of escorting fighters, the heavy losses in veteran crews on this and subsequent deep penetration missions in the autumn of 1943 led the Eighth Air Force to limit missions to targets within escort range

Curtis LeMay
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Curtis LeMay
Curtis LeMay
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LeMay became known for his massive incendiary attacks against Japanese cities during the war using hundreds of planes flying at low altitudes.
Curtis LeMay
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Colonel Curtis LeMay officially congratulates a bomber crew of the 306th Bomb Group in front of their B-17 Flying Fortress at Chelveston Airfield, England, 2 June 1943.
Curtis LeMay
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A "LeMay Bombing Leaflet" from the war, which warned Japanese civilians that "Unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America's humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives."

43.
Joseph Alsop
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Joseph Wright Alsop V was an American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist from the 1930s through the 1970s. His influential journalism and status as a top insider in Washington was prominent from 1945 to the late 1960s, Alsop was born on October 10,1910, in Avon, Connecticut, to Joseph Wright Alsop IV and Corinne Douglas Robinson. Through his mother, he was related to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, both of Alsops parents were active in Republican politics. Alsop graduated from the Groton School, a boarding school in Groton, Massachusetts, in 1928. After college, Alsop became a reporter, then a career for someone with an Ivy League diploma. Because of his ties to the Roosevelts, Alsop soon became well-connected in Franklin D. Roosevelts Washington. By 1936 the Saturday Evening Post had awarded him a contract to write about politics with fellow journalist Turner Catledge, two years later, the North American Newspaper Alliance contracted Alsop and Robert E. Kintner to write a nationally syndicated column on a daily basis. His first book The 168 Days, covering Roosevelts unsuccessful campaign to enlarge the Supreme Court, in 1940 Alsop and Kintner moved from NANA to the New York Herald Tribune. In 1941, after it had become clear that the United States would soon enter World War II, Alsop and Kintner suspended their column and volunteered for the armed forces. After the war, Alsop resumed his career, now working with his brother Stewart Alsop to produce a thrice-weekly piece called Matter of Fact for the Herald Tribune. The use of the word fact reflected Alsops pride in producing a column based on reporting, while his brother Stewart remained headquartered in Washington to cover domestic politics, Joseph traveled the world, covering foreign affairs. Their partnership lasted from 1945 until 1958, when Joseph became the author of Matter of Fact until his retirement in 1974. The Alsops once described themselves as Republicans by inheritance and registration, Alsop was a vocal supporter of Americas involvement in Vietnam, which led to bitter breaks with many of his liberal friends and a decline in the influence of his column. While on a mission for Chennault late in the fall of 1941. Unable to secure passage out of the city, Alsop was eventually taken into custody as an enemy alien and he traveled back to the states on the neutral liner Gripsholm. He returned to China as a civilian Lend-lease administrator in the fall of 1942 and he eventually rejoined Chennault in Kunming, China and served with him for the remaining months of the war. In subsequent years, Alsop also helped the Central Intelligence Agency in its intelligence-gathering activities, in 1953, Alsop covered the Philippine elections at the CIAs request. In 1961 he married Susan Mary Jay Patten, a descendent of John Jay and the widow of William Patten, by this marriage he had two stepchildren, William and Anne

44.
Oxford English Dictionary
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The Oxford English Dictionary is a descriptive dictionary of the English language, published by the Oxford University Press. The second edition came to 21,728 pages in 20 volumes, in 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary was first used unofficially on the covers of the series, and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, the title The Oxford English Dictionary fully replaced the name in all occurrences in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one-volume supplement. More supplements came over the years until 1989, when the edition was published. Since 2000, an edition of the dictionary has been underway. The first electronic version of the dictionary was available in 1988. The online version has been available since 2000, and as of April 2014 was receiving two million hits per month. The third edition of the dictionary will probably appear in electronic form, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press. As a historical dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary explains words by showing their development rather than merely their present-day usages, therefore, it shows definitions in the order that the sense of the word began being used, including word meanings which are no longer used. The format of the OEDs entries has influenced numerous other historical lexicography projects and this influenced later volumes of this and other lexicographical works. As of 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contained approximately 301,100 main entries, the dictionarys latest, complete print edition was printed in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages. The longest entry in the OED2 was for the verb set, as entries began to be revised for the OED3 in sequence starting from M, the longest entry became make in 2000, then put in 2007, then run in 2011. Despite its impressive size, the OED is neither the worlds largest nor the earliest exhaustive dictionary of a language, the Dutch dictionary Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal is the worlds largest dictionary, has similar aims to the OED and took twice as long to complete. Another earlier large dictionary is the Grimm brothers dictionary of the German language, begun in 1838, the official dictionary of Spanish is the Diccionario de la lengua española, and its first edition was published in 1780. The Kangxi dictionary of Chinese was published in 1716, trench suggested that a new, truly comprehensive dictionary was needed. On 7 January 1858, the Society formally adopted the idea of a new dictionary. Volunteer readers would be assigned particular books, copying passages illustrating word usage onto quotation slips, later the same year, the Society agreed to the project in principle, with the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. He withdrew and Herbert Coleridge became the first editor, on 12 May 1860, Coleridges dictionary plan was published and research was started

Oxford English Dictionary
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Seven of the twenty volumes of the printed version of the second edition of the OED
Oxford English Dictionary
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Frederick Furnivall, 1825–1910
Oxford English Dictionary
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James Murray in the Scriptorium at Banbury Road
Oxford English Dictionary
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The 78 Banbury Road, Oxford, house, erstwhile residence of James Murray, Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary

45.
Robert McNamara
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Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, during which time he played a role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Following that, he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981, McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis. McNamara consolidated intelligence and logistics functions of the Pentagon into two centralized agencies, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Supply Agency. Prior to his service, McNamara was one of the Whiz Kids who helped rebuild Ford Motor Company after World War II. A group of advisors he brought to the Pentagon inherited the Whiz Kids moniker, McNamara remains the longest serving Secretary of Defense, having remained in office over seven years. Robert McNamara was born in San Francisco, California and his father was Robert James McNamara, sales manager of a wholesale shoe company, and his mother was Clara Nell McNamara. His fathers family was Irish and in about 1850, following the Great Irish Famine, had emigrated to the U. S. first to Massachusetts and later to California. He graduated from Piedmont High School in Piedmont in 1933, where he was president of the Rigma Lions boys club, McNamara attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated in 1937 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with minors in mathematics and philosophy. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his sophomore year, and earned a varsity letter in crew. McNamara was also a member of the UC Berkeleys Order of the Golden Bear which was a fellowship of students and he then attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA in 1939. One major responsibility was the analysis of U. S. bombers efficiency and effectiveness, especially the B-29 forces commanded by Major General Curtis LeMay in India, China, and the Mariana Islands. McNamara established a control unit for XX Bomber Command and devised schedules for B-29s doubling as transports for carrying fuel. He left active duty in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, in 1946, Charles Tex Thornton, a colonel under whom McNamara had served, put together a group of officers from his AAF Statistical Control operation to go into business together. Thornton had seen an article in Life magazine portraying Ford as being in dire need of reform, henry Ford II, himself a World War II veteran from the Navy, hired the entire group of 10, including McNamara. The Whiz Kids, as came to be known, helped the money-losing company reform its chaotic administration through modern planning, organization. Whiz Kids origins, Because of their youth, combined with asking lots of questions, Ford employees initially and disparagingly, the Quiz Kids rebranded themselves as the Whiz Kids. Starting as manager of planning and financial analysis, he advanced rapidly through a series of management positions

46.
Stuart Symington
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William Stuart Symington, Jr. was an American businessman and politician from Missouri. He served as the first Secretary of the Air Force from 1947 to 1950 and was a Democratic United States Senator from Missouri from 1953 to 1976, Symington was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of Emily Haxall and William Stuart Symington, Sr. His mother, a descendant of the influential colonist and presidential ancestor Benjamin Harrison. Symington grew up in Baltimore, and was the oldest of his five brothers and sisters, Symington attended Roland Park Public School and the Gilman School, a private all-male preparatory school in Baltimores Roland Park neighborhood. He graduated from Baltimore City College in 1918, and at the age of 17, stationed in an Officer Training Program at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, Symington was never deployed to fight in World War I, with the war ending before he could seek deployment. Symington was commissioned as a lieutenant, becoming one of the youngest members of the Army to achieve that rank. He graduated from Yale University in 1923, at Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the Elihu senior society, and served on the board of the Yale Daily News. In 1923, Symington went to work for an uncle in the shops of the Symington Company of Rochester, New York, two years later he formed Eastern Clay Products but in 1927 returned to the Symington Company as executive assistant to the President. Symington resigned in 1930 to become President of the Colonial Radio Corporation, in January 1935, he accepted the presidency of Rustless Iron and Steel Corporation but remained a director of Colonial Radio Corporation. During World War II he transformed the company into the worlds largest builder of airplane gun turrets and he resigned from Emerson in 1945 to join the administration of fellow Missourian Harry S. Truman. His first positions were chairman of the Surplus Property Board, administrator of the Property Administration, on September 18,1947, the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force was created and Symington became the first Secretary. Symington had a term as he worked to win respect for the United States Air Force. He had numerous battles with Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. During his tenure, there was a debate and investigation into production of the Convair B-36 Bomber. He was featured on the cover of Time magazines January 19,1948 issue, major accomplishments during Symingtons term as Secretary included the Berlin Airlift and championing the United States Air Force Academy. Symington resigned in 1950 to protest lack of funding for the Air Force after the Soviets detonated their first nuclear weapon and he remained in the administration as Chairman of the National Security Resources Board and Reconstruction Finance Corporation Administrator. At the urging of his father-in-law James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. a former Republican Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Senator from New York, Symington decided to run for the U. S. Senate. In 1952, he was elected Senator from Missouri, taking the seat held by Truman

47.
Secretary of the Air Force
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The Secretary of the Air Force is the head of the Department of the Air Force, a component organization within the Department of Defense of the United States. The Secretary of the Air Force is appointed from civilian life by the President, by and with the advice, the salary of SECAF IS $179,700, Level II. On December 13,2013, Deborah Lee James was confirmed by the United States Senate to be the next Secretary of the Air Force and she was sworn in by Timothy Beyland on December 20. Undersecretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning assumed the role of acting secretary when then-Secretary of the Air Force Michael B, President Obama nominated James on August 1,2013. At that time, she was serving as president of the technology, the Secretary is the head of the Department of the Air Force, analogous to that of a chief executive officer of a corporation. The Department of the Air Force is defined as a Military Department, the exclusive responsibilities of the Secretary of the Air Force are enumerated in Title 10 Section 8013 of the United States Code. They include, but are not limited to, Recruiting, the construction, outfitting, and repair of military equipment. Air Force units while assigned to Combatant Commands may only be reassigned by authority of the Secretary of Defense, Air Force Officers have to report on any matter to the Secretary, or the Secretarys designate, when requested. The Office of the Secretary of the Air Force is one of the Department of the Air Forces two headquarter staffs at the seat of government, the one is the Air Staff. Definitions Subtitle D - Air Force CHAPTER6 - COMBATANT COMMANDERS §162, Combatant command, assigned forces, chain of command CHAPTER803 - DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE §8011. Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, under Secretary of the Air Force. CHAPTER805 - THE AIR STAFF §8032, the Air Staff, general duties §8033. Department of Defense Directive 5101.2, DoD Executive Agent for Space, leaders Through the Years,2012 USAF Almanac US Air Force Senior Leadership at Archive. is

Secretary of the Air Force
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Incumbent Deborah Lee James since December 20, 2013
Secretary of the Air Force
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Seal of the Department of the Air Force
Secretary of the Air Force
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Stuart Symington is sworn-in as Secretary of the Air Force by Chief JusticeFred M. Vinson on September 18, 1947.
Secretary of the Air Force
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Office of the Secretary of the Air Force

48.
United States presidential election, 1960
–
The United States presidential election of 1960 was the 44th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8,1960. The Republican Party nominated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, while the Democratic Party nominated John F. Kennedy, the incumbent President, Republican Dwight D. This was the first presidential election in which voters in Alaska and Hawaii were able to participate, Kennedy received 112,827 more votes than Nixon nationwide and although Nixon won the popular vote contest in more individual states, Kennedy won a 303 to 219 Electoral College victory. The 1960 presidential election was the closest election since 1916, which can be explained by a number of factors. Kennedy benefited from the recession of 1957–58, which hurt the standing of the incumbent Republican Party. Furthermore, the new votes that Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president, Kennedys campaigning skills decisively outmatched Nixons. In the end, Nixons emphasis on his experience carried little weight, Kennedy used his large, well-funded campaign organization to win the nomination, secure endorsements, and, with the aid of the last of the big-city bosses, get out the vote in the big cities. Kennedy relied on running mate Lyndon B. Johnson to hold the South, following the election, Nixon unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in 1962, before making a successful campaign for the presidency in 1968, winning re-election by a landslide in 1972. He was later the first United States President to resign, following the Watergate Scandal and this election also features the last time the state of Ohio was on the losing end of the presidential election. From 1964 onward, the candidate who won Ohio won the election nationwide, several other candidates sought support in their home state or region as favorite son candidates without any realistic chance of winning the nomination. Symington, Stevenson, and Johnson all declined to campaign in the presidential primaries, realizing that this was a strategy touted by his opponents to keep the public from taking him seriously, Kennedy stated frankly, Im not running for vice-president, Im running for president. The next step was the primaries, Kennedys Roman Catholic religion was an issue. Kennedy first challenged Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey in the Wisconsin primary, Kennedys attractive sisters, brothers, and wife Jacqueline combed the state looking for votes, leading Humphrey to complain that he felt like an independent merchant competing against a chain store. The first televised debate of 1960 was held in West Virginia, humphreys campaign was low on funds and could not compete for advertising and other get-out-the-vote drives with Kennedys well-financed and well-organized campaign. In the end, Kennedy defeated Humphrey with over 60% of the vote, West Virginia showed that Kennedy, a Catholic, could win in a heavily Protestant state. Although Kennedy had only competed in nine primaries, Kennedys rivals, Johnson and Symington. Following the primaries, Kennedy traveled around the nation speaking to state delegations, as the Democratic Convention opened, Kennedy was far in the lead, but was still seen as being just short of the delegate total he needed to win. The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California, in the week before the convention opened, Kennedy received two new challengers when Lyndon B